One Fine Week
by MaybeBaby27
Summary: Derek and Casey were content with the quasi friendship they had grown into after two years of living together in the McDonaldVenturi house. Until one week changes everything.
1. Prologue

24/11/2007 22:28:00

**I was going to wait until I finished this story before I posted anything but after reading Jordan Todosey's blog I have to. **

**She said Life With Derek filming is officially over. **

**I proceeded to cry.**

**Well not really, but it made me sad.**

**So in an attempt to lift my spirits, I am posting the prologue to my second multi-chapter LWD story. I won't be posting anything else until I am done writing, which could be another two weeks considering I have finals coming up this week, but I hope you like this.**

**And my super long author's notes are back with a vengence.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own life with Derek. Cause if I did, the show would have more than four seasons and the slight possibility of a TV movie.**

**---------------------------------------**

**Friday afternoon**

"Will you just shut up?!"

"No I will not shut up, Der-rek!" Casey angrily replied, putting special enunciation on his name. "Not until you tell me why!"

She was walking down the school hallway with Derek a few feet ahead of her, both of them getting more annoyed by the second.

He grabbed at his hair with both hands and nearly stopped walking, bending over slightly and growling in frustration, before returning to his previous position and speed.

"Oh my GOD, how many times do I have to tell you woman, I didn't do it!"

Derek pushed open the school exit doors, walking towards his car. Casey, now walking beside him, growled in frustration right back at him.

"Ugh! You infuriate me!" Casey said as they both got into the car. "I cannot think of one other person in the entire world who would pull a prank that was so… so… _juvenile_."

"Do you seriously think my pranks are _that _juvenile?" Derek responded, trying to sound as offended as possible. "I come from a very long line of master pranksters. Do you really think that would be the best I could do?"

"This coming from the boy who filled all my shoes with JELLO?!"

"I'm insulted! I filled your shoes with pudding." Derek stated pulling out of the school parking lot onto the busy street. "And I'm not a boy. I'm a man."

"Oh yeah, you're a man," Casey said sarcastically. She crossed her arms and leaned against the window facing him. "Did your one chest hair tell you that?"

"No!" He yelled, actually offended this time. "My facial hair did."

Casey scoffed at him. "You don't have facial hair! And _seriously_, I'm asking you once _again_, Why did you do it?!"

Derek growled angrily turning to look at her, "For the last freaking time I did not cover your locker with Vaseline!"


	2. Friday & Saturday Afternoons

26/11/2007 23:17:00

**So I lied. I can't resist not posting chapters when they're just itching to be read!**

**Disclaimer: I blah blah blah own blah blah nothing blah. Then there's this whole "It's on my Christmas list." thing blah blah blah.**

**------------------------------------**

**Friday afternoon**

Casey barged through the front door, slamming it behind her. "He is SO immature!" She walked to the couch and sat down next to her mother.

"Derek?" Nora asked, not looking up from her paperwork and not sounding the least bit surprised.

"Who else?!"

Derek walked through the door, throwing his back pack to the ground as he put his coat on the rack. He saw his father's disapproving face looking at him from the dining room table.

"I didn't do it!" Derek exclaimed, putting his hands up defensively. "And I'm not lying!"

"I don't want to know what you didn't do. Just don't do it again and apologize to your sister."

"What'd I do to Marti?!"

"I meant Casey, Derek," George said sounding exasperated.

"But I didn't even do anything to her this time!"

Casey scoffed loudly before yelling, "Did too!"

"_Did too," _Derek said mimicking her."What are you four years old?"

"Derrr-rek," George said warningly.

"Fine! Fine. I'm sorry Casey," Derek mumbled jogging up the stairs to his room, Casey following behind him.

"Apology not accepted but still appreciated," she said smugly, smirking as she walked into her room.

"Sorry that I have to deal with you," he said under his breath once her door was closed.

"I HEARD THAT!"

"Gahhhhhh!"

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**Saturday late afternoon**

"Hey," Derek said as he walked into Casey's room.

She glanced his way before turning back to her computer screen. He sat down on her bed and leaned back onto his elbows to look at her.

"Whatca doing tonight?" Silence. "Uh Space Case?"

She rolled her eyes before reluctantly answering. "Since you were such a _big_ **jerk** yesterday, I was planning on ignoring you all weekend, but so far that hasn't been working out too well."

"Okay. Well when you're done with _that_, you wanna go catch a movie with me and Sam?"

Casey spun around in her chair to look at him suspiciously. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because it's a Saturday night, and you are sitting in your room doing homework. Meaning you have nothing to do. Although you, Ms. Keener, probably consider homework, _plans_."

Casey scoffed, "I have plans!"

"Oh really?" Derek said smirking as he sat up. "With who?"

A perplexed expression covered Casey's face before she looked around pensively.

"With Emily," She said crossing her arms.

Derek stood up and headed for her door, "Alright Sam should be here to pick us up in an hour. See you downstairs."

"Wait. What?" Casey asked confused, spinning her chair to face the hallway.

"Emily's going to the movies with us." He smirked at her looking triumphant. "Has been since yesterday."

Casey's jaw dropped in an amused shock. "You tricked me!"

He winked at her smiling wide as he walked into the hall. He looked over his shoulder to see her smiling back as she threw the pen she was holding at him. Laughing, he dodged the object and ran into his room.


	3. Saturday Night

28/11/2007 23:10:00

**Disclaimer: LWD, Chili's, Dr. Pepper, Ferris Bueller, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, and Star Trek are all things I have no ownership over. I did, however, dress up like a Vulcan once.**

**Saturday night**

"Vulcan Death Threat? Are you kidding me?" Casey said looking at Sam.

Emily looked up at her boyfriend in disgust. "You seriously want to watch a movie that centers around Vulcans?"

"Derek help me out here," Sam said turning to his friend.

"Dude I'm with them. Star Trek should have died out decades ago."

Sam let out an exasperated puff of air, throwing his arms in the air in defeat. "Fine then you guys pick. I'm done trying to decide."

Emily's face lit up before she said, "Ooo how about-"

Derek pointed a finger at her. "Em, if the next movie title that you say can in any way be labeled as 'sappy', 'romantic', or 'chick flick' I don't want to hear it."

Emily scoffed and crossed her arms, turning back to look at the movie titles on the board above the ticket counter.

"Oh come on, Derek. You don't have to pretend to hate 'chick flicks'," Casey said with a smirk, making air quotes with her fingers. "I can't even count how many times you've made me watch How To Lose A Gu—"

"Okay so next idea?" Derek interrupted as he cupped his hand over her mouth, pulling her head to his shoulder.

Casey struggled to pull away from him, and smiled at his flustered face once she was successful. Sam and Emily stifled laughter, pretending for their friend's sake that they hadn't heard Casey's comment.

"Why don't we just watch Ferris Bueller's Day off again?" Casey asked looking at each of them. Derek and Emily let out a collective groan. "Well we don't have any better ideas do we? Might as well see a movie we all love. Even if it is for the four hundredth time."

Sam shrugged as he wrapped his arm around Emily's shoulders. "It has been a few months since the last time. And come on guys it is the greatest movie of all time."

"Alright I'm in," Derek said before joining the other two to look at Emily expectantly.

"Ugh, Why not?" She said, throwing her hands in the air.

After Sam had paid for the tickets for himself and Emily, Casey pulled out her wallet, looking at the teller. "One for Ferris Bueller."

Derek stepped up beside her and said to the cashier, "Actually make that two." He looked at Casey who was staring at him confused. "I made good tips last weekend and you still don't have a job, so don't worry about it."

"Thanks," Casey replied incredulously as she put her wallet back in her purse. She exchanged a look with Emily before the four of them headed inside.

--------------------------

"I'm gonna go pee before we go into the theater," Emily said to the group. "Why don't you guys get the popcorn while Casey and I go to the bathroom?"

"Why am I going with you?" Casey asked looking confused.

"We're girls. It's what we do. Just go with it." Emily turned to Sam and said, "Go light on the butter on the popcorn and don't forget to say no ice for my drink. It's a waste of—"

"Perfectly good space that could be filled by more pop instead of frozen water. I know. Now go. These two will both freak if you make them miss the previews." Sam leaned down pecking Emily on the lips before he pushed her in the direction of the bathroom. Once the girls where out of earshot, Sam turned to Derek, shoving him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "Dude you paid for her?!"

"So?"

"I know you like the girl now but since when do you pay for her?"

"I don't like Casey," Derek said defensively. "What the hell would make you think I like her?!"

"Calm down dude! I just meant that you guys have kinda been like friends in the last few months," Sam responded chuckling at him.

Derek's face relaxed and he gave an embarrassed fake smile before scoffing. "I know what you meant!" He looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets, taking a few steps forward in the snack station line.

"Alright. Alright. I believe you." Sam replied, amused by Derek obvious mistake.

Derek scoffed again as he stepped up to the counter and began ordering.

"Wow," Sam said incredulously under his breath, shaking his head.

------------------------------------

"So that was weird right?" Casey said, leaning against the bathroom counter with her arms crossed.

Emily came out of the stall and asked, "What was weird?"

"Derek paying for the movie ticket for me. I mean I know we developed some sort of weird quasi-friendship relationship but it's odd that he would just pay for me without any form of torture being inflicted upon him."

Emily grabbed a paper towel and turned to look at her friend. "Yeah it was a little weird. He's never done that before. Well except for that one time you made him after he super-glued all of the change in your piggybank together."

"Ah, but I used a mild form of torture to get him to do it that time." Emily raised her eyebrows questioningly. Casey looked at her and stated painfully, "I'd rather not speak of it."

Emily laughed. "Well I say just be grateful that he's being nice. And then I say start praying that this Derek sticks around for awhile."

Casey paused and looked around the bathroom as if she was afraid someone would overhear her. She lowered her voice, "You know Em I might be crazy, but it feels like lately, whenever the four of us hang out, I kinda feel like I'm on a, you know… a, double date."

"You're right. You're crazy," Emily deadpanned heading for the bathroom exit. Casey let out a soft laugh and followed her out the door.

-----------------------------------

"Finally!" Derek groaned as Casey and Emily walked towards them. "Previews start in 5 minutes."

"We were only gone for like 3 minutes, Derek." Emily said annoyed.

Sam handed Emily her drink and grabbed her free hand in his as they started walking towards the theater.

"Did you get Dr. Pepper?" Casey said indicating towards Derek's drink as they fell in step next to the couple.

He gave her a dirty look and clutched the popcorn and drink to his chest. "I don't do two good deeds in one day. One is unnatural enough. You can use the water fountain."

Casey rolled her eyes before turning to Emily and whispering, "And the old Derek is back." Emily looked sympathetically at Casey as she dropped Sam's hand and hit Derek in the chest.

"What did I do?!" Derek yelled almost dropping his popcorn.

Emily looked at Sam who mimicked Casey's earlier eye roll.

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"Sammy I'm serious. Before we graduate we have to ditch a day of school and crash a parade to sing Karaoke on a float!" Derek exclaimed as the four of them walked to Sam's SUV. Casey and Emily laughed even harder, clutching their stomachs while the boys exchanged a high five.

"Ok now that's something I'd pay to see. You two goons attempting to sing in a large crowd of people, who I'm sorry to break it to you Derek, would not be so excited by your performance that they would join in with a full on dance routine," Casey said through her laughter, clutching Derek's sleeve for balance.

"I think it's more likely that a few cops would have to cuff you as you're both booed by the crowd," Emily added.

"Baby you know you'd be out there cheering me on," Sam said opening the car door for her.

"Whatever you say, sugar plum."

"Could we refrain from the cutesy nicknames please?" Derek pleaded sliding into the backseat after Casey.

"Ditto!" She called out.

Sam and Emily looked at each other before smirking and letting out a joint, "Nah!"

Derek shook his head turning to look at the laughing Casey. "Well then, a rapid change in subject is in order. My turn to pick where we eat!"

"Alright, where to Derek?" Sam asked pulling out of his parking spot.

Derek opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Casey.

"Chili's."

Derek scrunched his forehead in confusion. "Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"You said a few days ago that you were having major BBQ steak cravings and I know that's where you like it from," Casey responded.

"Hmm," Derek said shrugging carelessly, turning to look out the window.

In the front seat, shielded from the eyes of the clueless stepsiblings, Sam and Emily exchanged an amused smile.

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**I still can't decide if I like Semily or Shemily better, so for the sake of this story I'm a Semily fan. **

**I'm not going to pled, but I will ask nicely. **

**Review pretty please? With a cherry on top?**


	4. Later Saturday Night

30/11/2007 17:38:00

**Disclaimer: If I owned LWD, fans would be 100 sure if there was going to be a season 5. Cause this 'Yes there is', 'No there isn't' thing is driving me crazy. I also don't own Chili's.**

**-------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Later Saturday Night**

"…then Sam started laughing so hard that the grape juice shot out of his nose all over the guy!" Derek finished up laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

"Ew!" Casey and Emily said together, looking at each other in disgust.

"Man that was not funny!" Sam exclaimed, smiling despite himself. "I was sneezing purple snot for a week!"

This made the other three burst out into laughter again, Sam crossing his arms and pretending to be mad.

Their waitress came up to the table shaking her head, amused by their constant laughter that evening. "You four sure know how to keep yourselves entertained! Can I get you anything else this evening?"

"I think we're good. Thanks a ton…Shelly!" Derek smirked, winking at her.

"Alright than I'll just bring the check," the older woman stated bashfully, cleaning the desert plates from their table.

"You just can't resist can you?" Casey said joining Emily in shaking her head at him.

"Hey I just brightened the day of a woman who probably goes home to 12 cats, it was a good deed!"

Casey scrunched her nose at him, smirking. "Mm hmmm."

"Shut up," He replied good-naturedly rolling his eyes.

"Derek?! Is that you?"

The four of them turned to look at a petite brunette who was waving as she approached their table.

"It is you. Hi."

"Hey. How's it going?" Derek said casually.

"Good. Good. I just, um, I'm a line cook here. And I was just going on break and I saw you so I thought I'd come say hi. So…Hi! Sorry to interrupt guys," the girl said nervously, directing the last part to Sam, Emily and Casey. The latter of the three looked the girl up and down before rudely asking, "Who are you?"

Derek shot Casey a weird look before turning back to the girl. "This is Jenna. We went out last weekend."

"Oh yeah. Derek mentioned you. Nice to meet you Jenna." Sam said before gesturing to himself then Emily. "I'm Derek's friend Sam and this is my girlfriend, Emily."

Emily let out casual "hi", giving Jenna a light wave.

"Nice to meet you." She said to Emily before she turned to the girl next to Derek, extending her hand. "And you are…?"

Casey looked at her hand before she tentatively shook it and smiled warmly.

"I'm Casey."

Jenna suddenly looked uncomfortable as she brought her eyes back to Derek's. "Oh. Uh sorry, is this your, um. A-are you guys on a double date?"

"No!" Casey and Derek both yelled, grabbing the attention of a few people at the tables around them.

"She's just a friend."

"And his stepsister," Casey added quickly.

Jenna's gave them a questioning look but her smile returned. "Well I get off work soon and since it's not a date, would you maybe wanna go get some ice cream with me?" Upon seeing Derek's smile immediately falter she added nervously, "I mean I don't wanna pull you away from your friends, I just was, you know, wondering, maybe…"

"I _am_ hanging with my friends so maybe another time," Derek said kindly.

"D go ahead if you want to. I don't mind," Sam said casually to Derek.

"Yeah go," Emily agreed before looking at Casey.

Casey lifted her straw to her mouth sucking casually at the nearly empty glass as she looked up at the wall. Emily kicked Casey's leg under the table.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Casey said rubbing her leg.

Emily rose her eyebrows and looked pointedly at her.

"Oh yeah." Casey looked at Derek and stated unenthusiastically, "Go with her Derek."

"Uh I think I'm good here," Derek said looking away from the two girls at the booth to smile at Jenna. "Maybe I'll call you later or something."

"Okay. I get off in 20 minutes, so if you change your mind call me."

"Cool," Derek responded.

"It was nice meeting you all," Jenna said as she waved and started walking away.

Once she was out of earshot, Emily leaned in towards Derek. "Why didn't you want to go with her? She seemed really nice."

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Casey stated out of the blue before she fled the table. The other three looked in her direction for a moment before returning to their conversation.

"Not to mention she's hot." Emily smacked Sam in the chest. "What?! She was!"

"No, it's cool. I wanna hang with you guys. I mean she is totally hot— and nice, of course, but we just didn't really fit together." Derek said picking at the food remaining on his plate with his fork.

Sam flopped back against the booth's seat and looked at Derek. "Dude that's what you've been saying about every girl lately. Well, that's what you say when you actually _go_ on dates."

"Hey I date all the time!" Derek stated defensively.

"Not that much anymore," Emily stated. "You used to have one to three dates every weekend and over the past six months you've been lucky if you go out on three a month." Emily looked from Sam to Derek who were both staring at her with raised eyebrows. "Oh don't look at me like you're surprised. You both know I know everything that goes on at school, why wouldn't I know the dating habits of one of my best friends?"

Sam nodded as if accepting the statement before turning back to look at Derek. "D she's right. Sure you still check girls out all the time, but you've been seriously slacking in the dating department."

"Whatever man," Derek said rolling his eyes. "I haven't lost my charm. I'm just, you know, taking a break. Leavin the ladies wanting more Venturi."

Casey slide back into the booth in time to catch the end of what Derek was saying. "Psh! Oh please. I think what the ladies would like is for Venturi to leave them alone."

"You're just jealous cause I, unlike you, am dateless by choice," Derek said as he pushed Casey back out of the booth. "Now move. I gotta piss."

"Uh you're welcome!" She exclaimed annoyed once he succeeded in pushing her out. She slide back into the booth shaking her head as she looked at his retreating form.

**------------------------------------------------------------**

Despite his defensiveness with his friends, Derek had been wondering for awhile now why he wasn't as interested in dating as he used to be. He still loved to look, but every girl he had gone out with in the last six months, he had been incredibly uninterested in.

Derek walked to the sink in the bathroom to wash his hands. _I __**have**__ been off my game lately, _he thought. In the past, even if a girl was boring he would still at least make out with her. He thought it would be a complete waste of his time if he was bored to death **and** didn't get any action.Even as he remembered his old philosophy, he realized that it was a horrible way of thinking.

Which is why he didn't do it anymore.

Derek grabbed a paper towel and dried his hands, balling it up and throwing it away as he thought about his current dating habits.

On his recent dates he did something the old him would have laughed at. After the date he would drop the girl off at home, **maybe** kiss her on the cheek and leave. He wouldn't try anything. He didn't have any desire to.

_Maybe I've matured. _

Derek looked up to check himself out in the mirror. _That's it. I've matured and these girls are too young for me now. __**That's **__why I find them all boring. They're beneath me—maturity wise. _He smiled smugly at his reflection. _Maybe I should date more college girls._

Derek watched his expression falter in the mirror. "That's not it." He said out loud. "What the hell is wrong with me lately?" He rubbed his face with both hands, before shoving them angrily through his hair. Pushing away from the sink, he yanked open the door and walked out.

A door marked 'Employees Only' flung open in the short hallway by the bathroom. Derek, who was looking at his feet, looked up just in time to see himself collide with another person.

"Oh sorry," he said reaching out to grab the arms of the girl he bumped into to stable her.

"Jenna!"

"Wow Derek. I thought I was straight forward enough. You don't really need to use the accidentally bumping into me thing, " she said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Derek chuckled, nervously dropping his hands from her arms and putting them in his jean pockets. "Listen Jenna I gotta be completely honest with you. I think you're an amazing girl." She blushed as she took a step closer to him. "Your pretty and funny and smart and nice bu—" Derek was cut off by Jenna's hands grabbing the back of his neck and her lips pressing against his roughly.

Derek let out a surprised moan before he pushed her away, unlatching her hands from behind his head. He took a few steps away from her and cleared his throat. "_**But**_ I'm sorry. I just don't feel that, you know, chemistry between us."

A blush made it's way to her cheeks as she stuttered out, "Oh. I'm, uh, really embarrassed. I'm-I'm sorry, for kissing— oh God. I'm sorry." She brought a hand to her face, embarrassed as she turned to walk away, muttering a "bye" in his direction.

Derek looked after her for a moment before heading back to the booth. He shook his head at himself. _A totally hot, amazing, nice girl just kissed me and I felt absolutely nothing._

_What the __**hell**__ is wrong with me?!_

**-----------------------------------------------------------------**

"Took your sweet time did you?" Casey said looking at Derek with contempt as he returned to the table. "You should really think about people besides yourself, Derek. It was rude to keep us waiting this long."

"Chillz woman! It's like your taking my need to urinate personally."

"Ugh! Whatever jerk! I'm going to the car. Come on Em." She said as she slid out of the booth heading for the restaurant's exit. Emily looked confused but followed after her, taking Sam's keys out of his hands as she passed him.

"Dude, what's wrong with her?" Derek asked pointing his thumb over his shoulder after the girls.

"I dunno, D. It's like the bitch switch just turned on out of nowhere. Happened all the time when _I _was dating her, " Sam said patting Derek on the shoulder as he walked past him. Derek's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before he rolled his eyes and followed after his friends.

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**While I would like to hear your thoughts on this chapter, I would also like to know what you think about the current unclear state of the fate of LWD. **

**And if anybody happens to have a transcript to the conversation on AL's myspace where she 'confirmed' S5 and said the infamous "Hot Dasey Action" I'd like to read it. **

**Thanks loves!**


	5. Really Late Saturday Night

02/12/2007 00:49:00

**I was originally going to wait until Sunday or Monday night to post this but I went through and reread all of my reviews and I felt the intense urge to please the people who make me feel successful by putting up another chapter. I finally understand what people mean when they say reviews make you post quicker. THEY REALLY DO!!!**

**Thanks to all who reviewed and also to those who replied to my question! There's a reply by Jordan regarding the s4/s5 drama, but since links don't seem to work on here, tell me if you want me to send it to you and I will. But based on the reply, I'm believing her that the 4****th**** season is the LAST one. Tears. BUT a movie is VERY possible.**

**Disclaimer: No definite answer yet, but I'm almost positive I didn't win LWD in the lotto drawing.**

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**Really Late Saturday Night**

"Uh! He's such a pain in the as—butt sometimes!" Casey exclaimed pacing her bedroom floor.

"So I've heard. From you. A million times in the past hour," Emily replied sounding bored. "And you can swear Case, I promise you won't explode." She crossed her legs, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand.

It was well after midnight and Casey had been complaining since Sam had dropped her, Derek, and Emily off at the McDonald/Venturi residence. The entire ride home from the restaurant was spent in silence, something that was unheard of (no pun intended) when the four of them were together. Emily was really starting to regret saying she would stay the night.

"It's just, why must he be so…_Derek_?" Casey grumbled spitefully.

"May I ask what it is that he did to make you so angry? He paid for you at the movies and insulted you as little as is possible for Derek. I mean you guys were getting along for most of the night. But then after you came back from paying the check you got all pissy."

Casey narrowed her eyes, growling yet again in anger. "He's like a dog that hasn't been fixed! If you don't keep him on his leash he'll go around humping anything with boobs!"

"Wait. He was humping somebody?" Emily burst out, suddenly feeling quite angry herself.

"Well not humping… exactly, but close enough!"

"Who? When? Where?"

"After I paid the check, I noticed that Derek was still not back at the booth and I thought he was taking a long time. So I went to the back to make sure he was alright, and there he was, making out with that psycho-stalker bitch Jenny right in the middle of the hall. I mean honestly! No self control."

Casey plopped down on her bed next to Emily, exhaling deeply. Emily gave her friend a pitying look and put her hand on Casey's arm.

"First of all, Jenn_**a**_ was really nice. Second of all, I find it kinda weird that Derek would be making out with her after he completely rejected her at the table."

Casey rolled her eyes. "He said he would call her later. That's not completely rejecting her."

"He said maybe to her in like, seven hundred different ways! He was just trying to be nice. And besides that, Derek's not really the type of guy anymore who just makes out with random girls for fun. It was probably just a misunderstanding of some sort."

"Misunderstanding?!" Casey exclaimed, jumping up to tower over her. "What like he mistook her face for candy and all he wanted was a little sugar fix?!"

"Woah ok! Calm down," Emily stated holding her hands up defensively in front of her as she stood up.

"I am calm!" Casey shouted walking over to her dresser. She opened her top drawer, took out pajamas for Emily to wear and slammed it shut, rattling her mirror.

"Casey, I hate to tell you this, and you're gonna hate hearing it, but you're jealous."

"Of what?" Casey scoffed, shoving the pajamas at Emily. "The fact that he can 'get a date', so to speak, and I can't?"

"_No_," Emily said, dragging out the word. "You're jealous, in the 'hands off my man' type of way."

"Ew! Emily that's disgusting! Just cause I mentioned it felt like a double date doesn't mean I _want_ to date Derek!"

Emily shook her head, turning away from Casey to head to the bathroom with the pajamas and her toothbrush.

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Emily looked up from the sink when she heard Derek's bedroom door open.

"You're still up?" she mumbled through the foam. "I thought you went to bed hours ago."

"After I put on my headphones to drown out Casey's shrieking, I did. Then natured called." Derek said, crossing his arms and leaning against the bathroom doorframe. "So you wanna tell me why she's mad at me this time?"

After taking far longer than necessary to spit and rinse, Emily responded. "Casey's not mad at you."

Derek glared at her, his eyes narrowing in disbelief.

"Okay she's a little mad at you," she said wiping her mouth and picking up her jeans from the floor, hugging them to her chest.

"Why? I didn't even do anything. Pft! Not that I _have_ to do anything. She'll just blame anything on me." He pushed himself from the doorframe, turning to face her as she walked into the hall. "It's like the stick she had shoved up her ass when we were fifteen made a comeback."

Emily chuckled, turning around to look at him. His brow was furrowed and he seemed genuinely concerned as to why Casey was upset. _What a difference a couple years makes._ Emily thought. _These two have gone from not being able to stand the sight of each other to being more concerned with each others business than they'll ever admit._

"She saw you making out with Jenna at Chili's. Which by the way," she smacked the back of his head and lowered her voice another octave. "What are you doing making out with a girl five minutes after telling me and Sam you didn't have any interest in her?"

"Okay, first of all: **Ow**!" He stated pointing to his head. "And second, I was not making out with her! I ran into her, literally, in the hall and _she_ kissed me. I told her I wasn't interested."

"Oh." Emily said, her anger draining from her body. "See?! I told Casey it was probably a misunderstanding."

"Yeah and speaking of annoying, why would she care if I made out with Jenna?"

Emily smiled, pinching his check. "You're lucky you're pretty. Otherwise I would be very concerned about your chances for survival."

"_How_ is that answering my question?"

"Sorry for smacking your head. Goodnight Derek," Emily stated with a cunning look in her eyes, before walking into Casey's room, closing the door behind her.

"Night?" Derek asked himself, still feeling extremely confused by Emily's cryptic words as he went into his room, nature forgotten.


	6. Still Really Late Saturday Night &Sunday

04/12/2007 17:26:00

**Pointless Author's Note: I saw A Derekus Christmas yesterday. Didn't suck, but it also wasn't that great. But Michael and Daniel were both looking mighty attractive so that made up for it. And Jordan looked quite gorgeous too with her long wavy hair. You can tell this episode was filmed later than the rest cause Jordan and Dan both looked older. Anyways, on with the story that I hope lifts your spirits from the Dasey funk.**

**P.S. I love this chapter. Emily has so much potential to be incredibly awesome and I don't feel they give her enough to work with.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the song 'One Fine Day', but you should check out the lyrics considering it's the inspiration for this story. And If I owned LWD, Derek would always be shirtless wearing dark jeans held up by a belt with a huge buckle. **

**God I love my scrawny man.**

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Still really late Saturday night**

"Where you just talking to Derek?" Casey asked angrily.

Emily closed the door, throwing her jeans next to her purse on the floor and sitting down on the bed next to Casey.

"Yes. And don't do the thing where you expect me to not be nice to him just because you're mad."

"Traitor," Casey coughed into her shoulder.

Emily shook her head at Casey, grinning. "You do realize that when a girl expects her best friend to hate a guy she's mad at, it's usually the girl's boyfriend, crush, love interest, etc.?"

"**Ser**iously Em?! Are you really gonna go back to that nonsense?" She stood up and leaned against her bookcase, her arms crossing defensively. "It's completely repulsive to think that I would be jealous."

"Ok then, if you're not jealous why do you care so much about who he makes out with?"

"I **don't** care."

Emily leaned back against the headboard, her face filled with disbelief as she glared pointedly at Casey.

"Ok so I care a little." Casey admitted beginning to pace again. "But not because I'm jealous. Ever since Derek and I have started getting along better, the four of us have become a kind of a best friend square unit. We're almost always all together. So the real reason I care is because by Derek abandoning us to go make out with some random girl, it was like he was saying we weren't as important. 'Friends are so _passé_.'" Casey stopped pacing for a moment shaking her head. "That may not have made much sense."

"No it did. It's a completely illogical and retarded way of thinking but it made sense." Emily paused moving to sit at the end of the bed. "Casey I just talked to Derek in the hall and he told me what really happened with Jenna. It was a misunderstanding just like I told you. He came out of the bathroom at the restaurant and she like _pounced_ on him. He said that he pushed her away and told her he didn't like her like that."

"Oh," Casey sounded, feeling stupid.

"But what I don't get is how you could mistake a short, one-sided kiss for making out."

"Um, well…I may not have actually seen them making out, _per say_, considering I only looked for like a second—"

"Casey!" Emily groaned, putting her palm to her forehead in frustration.

"But it was a really, really long second! I didn't want to look any longer than that! It's been a few months since I've caught him making out with a girl and when I saw it, I kinda just wanted to get away as quickly as possible."

"_Why_? Casey I just don't understand why you would freak out so badly about this if you aren't jealous."

"I don't either! When I saw Derek and Jenna together something in me just snapped and I felt all weird and all I wanted to do was get away, but then anger just started pulsing through me, quickly growing more and more intense and **then **all I wanted to do was pull that girl away from Derek by her hair and grab him and _**holy shit**_ I like Derek!"

Casey froze, her face filled with horror. She squeezed her eyes shut, a high-pitched, squeaky, groaning noise escaping her lips. Emily's eyes widened as she bit her lip, trying to conceal her smile.

"Get away from her!"

Both girls jumped at the sound of the shirtless Derek bursting into Casey's room, hockey stick raised in his hands, and concern evident in his droopy eyes. He quickly looked back and forth between them before his gaze settled on Casey.

"Are you okay Case?"

Casey looked at Derek as she opened her mouth, a croaking noise coming out instead of words. Having Derek burst protectively into her room wearing only his sweatpants, seconds after she realized she liked him was not easy on her already overloaded brain.

"What happened? I heard you shrieking. I thought someone was trying to break in," He gasped out.

Noticing that Casey was not functioning properly at that moment, Emily stood up, putting her arm around Casey's waist, smiling apologetically at Derek.

"Nothing happened. We're both fine. Casey just thought she saw a mouse."

Derek sighed, all the tension draining from his body. He relaxed his raised arm holding the hockey stick, redirecting his eyes from Emily to look at the frozen Casey.

"Casey! You woke me up from my beauty sleep and gave me a freaking heart attack for a mouse?! Jeez woman!"

Derek suddenly tensed again as he looked around the room in a panic.

"Wait it's not still here is it?!"

Emily chuckled, reaching out to grab his arm, leading him to the door.

"Derek calm down. I said she _thought_ she saw a mouse. But I think it was probably just a shadow or something. Now go to your room and get back to your beauty sleep."

"I **would **be insulted by you kicking me out so rudely, you know, after I ran in here to save your lives, but I know how disappointed the ladies would be if my lack of sleep caused me to not look as amazing as I normally do."

"Yeah. Wouldn't want that. Night!" Emily said pushing him out the door and leaning on it after it closed.

Casey made a growling sound in the back of her throat, her brain still on overload, before she managed to squeak out, "Ah-nin-hamin."

"Ok, that wasn't English," Emily said, grabbing her by both shoulders.

Casey made another attempt to speak, a few more incoherent sounds leaving her lips. She swayed slightly before her eyes fluttered shut and her body went limp. Emily lurched forward, wrapping her arms around Casey to stop her from falling, sliding their bodies as smoothly as possible to the floor.

"Ooph," Emily groaned, blowing a curl out of her eyes. "Well—That went well."

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Sunday Evening**

"So have you talked to him yet?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Cause I haven't left my room since you did."

"Casey I left 7 hours ago!" Emily's scolding voice said through the phone. "You can't avoid him forever."

"Are you sure? Cause spending the rest of my life in my room is a lot more appealing at the moment then having to have any form of interaction with Derek." Casey turned over to lay on her back, staring through the darkness up at her ceiling.

"You're impossible. Now get your butt out of bed, change out of those pj's and leave the dark hole that is your room right now!"

Casey sat up, her face scrunched in shock and embarrassment.

"Okay do you have hidden cameras watching me or something ?"

"No. I just was thinking back to how I was when I realized I liked Sam. The last thing in the world I wanted was to leave the safety of my comfy clothes and warm bed in my dark room in order to face you."

Casey's face relaxed into a sympathetic smile. "Em…"

"But one thing I didn't do was listen to Natalie Merchant sing 'One Fine Day' for seven hours."

"Hey! This is only the third time I've played it. And it's The Chiffons. How can you even mistake the original for Natalie Merchant's sad version of the song?!"

"Sad?! Are you kidding me her's is so much better than— Dang it Casey! No more procrastinating by bringing me into pointless arguments! Start acting like the keener I know you can be and face that challenge head on! I'll see you at school tomorrow where I expect to be given a detailed report."

"Okayyy fine," Casey said reluctantly. "Thanks Emily."

"No problem babe. Bye"

"Bye."

Casey hung up the phone, setting it back into it's charger. She sat in the dark for another moment before she reached over and turned on the lamp next to her bed. _Ok. I have light. Step one complete, _Casey thought, standing up.

_Step two; getting out of bed. _

_Check. _

She walked over to her closet, picking out her favorite outfit, even though she found it ridiculous to be changing out of her pajamas when she would be putting them back on in a few hours.

_Step three; get dressed. _

_Check. _

"Dinner's ready Case," Derek said banging obnoxiously on her door before heading down the stairs. Casey put her hand on the door knob, taking a deep breath and rolling her neck. She walked out of her room and paused before continuing on down the stairs.

_Step four: Leave the room. _

_Check_

"Took you long enough! I'm starving here!" Derek said over his shoulder as she reached the landing.

_Step five; face Derek._

_Must I put a check after this one?_


	7. Still Sunday & Monday Morning

06/12/2007 00:18:00

**Disclaimer: So I got a phone call from Daphne the other day and she told me that she was handing the rights to LWD over to me. I (as expected) was over the moon! But, as it turns out, it wasn't Daphne, creator of LWD, but in fact Daphne, Marti's imaginary friend. So the handing over of the rights wasn't valid. Sucks don't it? Oh and J.K. Rowling never told me that I had the rights to the Harry Potter franchise either. Just for clarification.**

**----------------------------------------------------------------**

**Still Sunday**

"Casey are you alright?" George asked eyeing his step-daughter.

She lifted her eyes from her plate and smiled softly at him, grateful that he had come to care so much about her.

"I'm fine George."

"Are you sure, Casey? You look really out of it." Nora stated gently, placing a hand on Casey's arm. "And locking yourself in your room all day usually doesn't mean that your fine."

"I am I promise. Emily and I just stayed up really late last night so I'm kinda tired and I had a lot of homework to do before school tomorrow, so I thought holing myself in would be the most efficient way to finish."

"Keener!" Derek coughed, making Edwin laugh.

Casey's eyes darted nervously to Derek's before she looked back down at her plate. He studied her, his brows scrunched in confusion at her lack of a retort to his insult.

_She has been acting so weird since last night._ Derek thought, averting his eyes from Casey to watch Lizzie play with her food. _She was nice and normal, then she was rude to Jenna, then she got all bitchy and distant. Like Sam said, It's like the bitch switch just turned on out of nowhere. And what was with that 'happened all the time when __**I**__ was dating her' thing about? Casey isn't dating anyone. Wait. Unless he meant…_

His face outwardly scrunched in shock. "No freaking way!"

"…Jeez Derek, you don't have to be so rude!" Lizzie yelled suddenly, throwing her fork onto her plate and crossing her arms.

"Huh?" He said noticing that he had been staring blankly at Lizzie and that the rest of the family was now staring at him. Well the rest of the family meaning everyone except Casey who was still doing everything to avoid his eyes.

"Not cool man," Edwin said at the same time Marti yelled "Smer-rek!

Shaking his head, George added "Seriously Derek if you didn't want to go you could have at least been nice about it. If you don't learn a little respect—"

"Wait no. What'd I do?" Derek spoke frantically, interrupting his father.

"Lizzie just asked if you were going to be coming to her hockey game next week, and you shouted at her."

"I wasn't listening! I didn't even mean to say that out loud. I was just thinking about stuff."

"Well there's a first," Casey interrupted, her eyes still hesitant to look at him, but getting closer to their normal vibrancy.

He glared at her, annoyed on the outside but inwardly grateful that she was at least talking to him.

"Sorry Liz. I really wasn't listening," Derek said sounding genuinely upset with himself. "I'll go to your game."

"Ok," Lizzie said looking at him, confused by his genuine apology. "Thanks."

There was a few moments of awkward silence at the table before conversations started up again, Derek tuning them out to return to his thoughts. Once they were all done with dinner, Nora stood up and began clearing away the plates.

"You're not afraid of mice, freakazoid!" Derek blurted, his head shooting up to look at Casey.

"Yeah. So?" she stated, finally looking at him with her normal fire. "How does that relate in any way to the current topic?"

"When I went into your room last night, Emily said you saw a mouse. But you're not afraid of mice," he said, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously. "Why'd you really scream?"

Casey's eyes widened in a panic. She looked around at the questioning faces of the rest of her family, and chuckled nervously.

"Hey Mom! Why don't I take care of the dishes for you tonight?!"

Casey stood up quickly, not waiting for an answer. She avoided Derek's amused gaze as she took the plate from in front of Edwin, whose fork was halfway to his mouth.

"Hey! I wasn't finished!" Edwin yelled as Casey ran into the kitchen with the last of the dishes, closing the doors behind her.

"Women!" He stated, shaking his head. He looked up to see the remaining females at the table eyeing him. "Uh…I mean… I just meant that in a strictly…"

"Give it up Ed," George spoke, chuckling softly. "You don't stand a chance."

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

A few minutes later, the doors behind Casey slid open before slowly closing again. The person paused before moving to sit down on the counter next to the sink, a smirk covering his face as he stared down at her.

"Can I help you?" Casey asked annoyed, as she put a plate in the cabinet, narrowly avoiding it falling to the ground.

Derek remained silent, his amused eyes following her every move as she clumsily worked around the kitchen. He was enjoying seeing her squirm and he was planning on milking it for all it was worth.

After a few more moments of drying and putting away dishes in silence, Casey sighed and threw the dish towel on the counter, leaning against the island to look at Derek.

"What?"

Derek smirked at her, asking in a cheery voice, "What were you freaking out about last night?"

"Ugh Derek! Let it go! Emily and I were just talking and I had an interesting thought and it shocked me. You of all people should know what it feels like to be surprised by a thought, considering you have so few of them."

"Ouch. That hurts Case!" Derek said jumping off the counter to stand directly in front of her. "I'm gonna find out you know," he stated, staring down at her intently, brown eyes meeting blue in a battle for victory.

Casey stood her ground, trying not think about him in the way she had been all day. She was trying not to think about how she could feel his warm breath on her face. About how close they were. Trying not to think about how if she took just one tiny step forward her lips could touch his. How if she just reached out—

Suddenly feeling a strange kind of comfortable discomfort at their staring contest, he broke eye contact. As he turned to leave the kitchen, Derek could not understand what urged him to brush his body so closely against hers, and why it was that her breath seemed to catch as he did it.

Casey stood momentarily frozen, waiting until he had left the room to turn her head and watch him walk to the stairs. Once he was out of sight she groaned in frustration and slid down to sit on the floor.

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Monday**

"So what happened?" Emily shrieked as she walked up to Casey's locker the next morning.

"Good morning to you too Em!" Casey said pulling a book out of her locker.

"Yeah yeah whatever. What happened last night? Did you tell Derek you like him?!" Emily squealed, even louder than before.

Casey waved her arms in Emily's face shushing her.

"Don't say that so loud! I don't want random people walking by to find out. And I especially don't want him to!"

"What do you want me to call him, He-who-must-not-be-named?"

"No, Emily Potter, We'll just call him… DJ Elbows."

"Umm…" Emily mumbled, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "May I ask how you arrived at that codename?"

"Well DJ because he has all those records up on his wall in his room—"

"And elbows because you find his to be oh so sexy?" Emily retorted smugly.

"No!" Casey stated defiantly, narrowing her eyes. "Because he has those weird posters with some freaky looking guy in sunglasses with the words Sore Elbows above his head."

"Alrighty then. Casey, did anything happen last night with _DJ Elbows_?"

Casey sighed glancing across the halls with despondency at Derek at Sam's locker.

"No."

"You mean you didn't tell him?!"

"Are you kidding me?! I just told _myself_ that I like him, I'm not ready to tell him yet!"

"Oh. Sure. Makes sense I guess." Emily stated with disappointment, before a hopeful expression took over. "Nothing? Really?...Are you sure?" Casey shook her head. "Not even any special interaction your first time around him since you realized you like him?"

"Well actually…" Casey started a smile lighting up her face.

Emily clapped her hands in excitement and squealed, leaning in closer to her. "Do tell!"

Casey glanced up and noticed Sam and Derek approaching.

"Later," Casey whispered pulling back to greet the boys. "Hello Sam. Derek."

"Hey Casey," Sam said before giving Emily a peck on the lips. "Hi baby."

Emily smiled up at him breathing out a quick, "Hi."

"You guys are sick," Derek said shaking his head. "_Casey!_ Nice to see your hair has improved from completely terrifying to only mildly horrific."

She rolled her eyes, slamming her locker shut, and turned to her best friend.

"Hey Em remember that thing I realized the other night?" Casey said, knowing that bringing up something that Derek was dying to know about would drive him nuts. "Yeah I changed my mind. Bye."

She left with a little wave, heading to her first class. Derek turned to watch her go. "I'm gonna figure it out!"

"No you're not!" she sang back at him merrily, not turning around.

"Later guys," Derek said, a small smile evident on his face as he patted Sam on the shoulder and walked away.

Emily and Sam looked at each other smirking. Emily glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

"After you dropped us off at their house on Saturday, Casey admitted that she likes Derek."

"It's about damn time!" Sam said throwing his hands into the air.

"Any progress with Derek?"

"Not yet. Still hinting at him like crazy."

"But did you just see them? That was definitely flirting," she said smiling widely as they started walking towards their class.

Sam chuckled, putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him to kiss her forehead.

"Oh yeah."


	8. Monday Night, Tuesday, and Wed Morning

07/12/2007 23:04:00

**This is one of the longest chapters in the story and it is also the last chapter that I wrote. It took me forever to get the inspiration to write it and once I got it, the chapter wrote itself surprisingly quickly. This is also one of my favorite chapters. I'd love to know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I disclaim LWD, IMing, the encyclopedia and Word of the Day toilet paper. But 'Babe's in Bikini's', Alex, David, Carter, Andrew, Patrick and Nathan all belong to me. If only I owned that many real boys. ;)**

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Monday Night**

"Okay that's weird."

"What is?"

Derek turned his swivel chair to face his bed, where Casey was laying on her stomach reading. "Emily just IM'ed me—"

"Why is that weird?"

"I wasn't finished woman!" Derek exclaimed glaring at her. "She said, 'Has Mr. Elbows been told anything interesting lately?' You have any idea what she's talking about?"

_That bitch_, Casey thought, pseudo anger coursing through her. _I'm gonna kill her._ Outwardly, she just shook her head, giving a light chuckle. "No idea."

"Huh. Did you notice how weird she and Sam were acting today?"

Casey shrugged, finally looking up from the book. "They seemed normal to me."

"It was freaky. Every time I talked to them they would be grinning like idiots and agreeing with everything I said."

"And this _upsets_ you?" Casey asked raising one eyebrow. "That _is_ weird."

Derek threw a paperclip at her, which she dodged, almost falling off the bed in the process. "Whilst they should agree with everything I say, they never do, so yeah it's a little unnerving."

"Whilst? Did you get 'Word of the Day' toilet paper or something?"

"Better than being a nerd who reads the encyclopedia for fun."

Casey slammed closed the D book from her collection, and sat up crossing her arms. "At least I'm doing something productive rather than wasting my time looking up pictures from the December edition of 'Babes in Bikini's'."

"It's productive! I'm massaging my temporal and frontal lobes."

"Temporal and frontal lobes? **Seriously**, 'Word of the Day' toilet paper?!" Casey shouted angrily, getting up and opening his door so hard it slammed against the wall. "And I better not hear you _massaging_ anything else through the wall after I leave!"

Derek smirked, taking her words as a challenge. "Out moaning _you_ will just be another accomplishment I can hold over your head!"

The rage she was feeling overtook her face as she growled and slammed his door. Stomping into her room, she slammed her door and put the encyclopedia on the shelf between the C and E editions. She threw herself on her bed, face down in her pillow. She screamed into it every few seconds, her frustration leaving her body with each pull of her throat. After the anger and frustration had passed, she began feeling anxious. She got out of bed to pace her room, feeling herself calm down even more with every step. After ten minutes, she got bored and walked down the hall. Throwing open Derek's door, Casey stalked into the silent room, throwing herself down next to him on his bed. Never looking at each other, they lay next to each other in comfortable silence for a few moments.

Derek peeled his eyes away from the ceiling turning his neck to see her. "Wanna go rent a movie?"

"Yeah let's go," Casey stated, pushing herself off his bed, narrowly avoiding tripping over a pair of shoes and followed him out of the room.

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Tuesday**

"I'm a masochist," Casey stated calmly as she plopped down in the seat across from Emily in the cafeteria.

"Care to explain your reasoning?"

"What other explanation would their be for me liking Der—_DJ Elbows_? Which speaking of— I hate you."

Emily chuckled at herself. "Derek tell you about the IM?"

"I was with him when you sent it."

"Sorry I just couldn't resist. Sam and I were talking on the phone and he mentioned something about going to see this supposedly amazing DJ on Saturday and I—"

"Where is your boyfriend?" Casey said looking around. "And my—um… the other person?"

Emily sighed, deciding to let her best friend's interruption slide. "They decided to eat off campus today."

Casey's tense shoulders suddenly visibly relaxed and her nervous knee shaking stopped. "Oh."

"And on behalf of your first question, you liking him doesn't warrant as masochistic behavior. He's a really good guy that you spend a great deal of time with. I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner."

"Figure it out?" Casey asked looking at her confused.

_Crap._ Emily thought as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Umm, I meant realize it sooner."

"Em what aren't you telling me?"

"Well—I kinda sorta, maybe… have been tryingtosetyouandDerekup."

Casey's jaw dropped. "You—You WHAT?!"

"Yeah well ever since the four of us started hanging out all the time, Sam and I—"

"_Sam's in on it too_?!" Casey exclaimed, cutting her off yet again.

"Sorry. He's my boyfriend, we talk."

"Wait." Casey's eyes narrowed. "You didn't tell him what I told you the other night did you?"

Emily bit her lip, trying her best to not look guilty. Casey groaned and let her head bang against the table.

"I hate this all so much." Casey moaned, before lifting her head. "I hate that I like him, I hate that he's my step brother, cause living in the same house makes avoiding him impossible. I hate that I've been so distracted by thinking about him that I haven't been able to concentrate in any of my classes. I hate that stupid freaking codename I came up with. I mean **DJ Elbows**? How retarded is that?! And what I reallyreallyreally hate is that Klutzilla is rearing her ugly head again."

"What'd Klutzilla do?"

"Oh nothing, just you know every time she saw Mr. Elbows (as you so affectionately put it to Derek) she did something stupid like walk into a locker, drop all her books down the stairs, trip and knock over a display for the science department. Among other things."

"Oh Casey." Emily said sympathetically. "As embarrassing as it is, you being clumsy is a good thing."

"How do you figure?" Casey asked disbelievingly.

"Because you're only like that with the good guys. Sam and Alex? Whereas you were perfectly fine around the assholes. Scott, Max, David, Carter, Andrew, Patrick, Nathan…"

"Okay you can stop! Jeez! Not only are you making me sound like a slut, but a slut with bad taste in guys."

"Ha! Sorry. I'm just trying to make you feel better."

"I know you are but you're not doing a very goo—"

Emily's smile turned fake as she said between her teeth, "Which is why I hate to inform you that our guys are going to be joining us in about two seconds—Hi!" Sam and Derek sat down next to Emily and Casey respectively, Sam stealing a fry off of Emily's tray.

"I thought you guys were going out to lunch?" Emily inquired, looking between the two of them.

"We were. Until the new principle decided to add a 'On-Campus lunch only' rule," Derek mocked, sinking back casually into the chair. "Dude's a fun sucker."

Sam smiled at Emily. "But at least now we get to have lunch with you and… Ms. Statue over there. Are you okay Casey?"

Three sets of eyes looked over at Casey who was sitting stiffly her eyes fixed on the table. She looked around at them all before giggling nervously.

"Uh, heh heh. Nothing! I'm fine! In fact I'm more than fine. I'm fantastic. I'm incredible. I'm wonderful. I'm—"

"Rambling?" Derek finished, looking at her pointedly. Casey turned her head to look at him for the first time, and jumped up nervously when their eyes connected. Her chair flew back, tripping a passing student, causing their lunch tray to go flying.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed moving to help the girl clean up.

After a minute or two of watching amused as Casey scurried around on her hands and knees, Derek leaned into Emily. "What's up with Klutzilla?"

Emily opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Casey sitting back down and putting her head in her hands. "I hate DJ."

Derek sat up straighter in his chair. "DJ? I don't know a DJ. Who's DJ?"

Emily smirked evilly. "A guy Casey likes."

Casey's head shot up and she glared Emily, which caused the latter girl to look down at her food.

"Oh!" Sam said having a revelation. "She's being Klutzilla, cause he's—" Casey redirected her glare to Sam, her lips pursing in anger. "Nevermind."

Derek looked around at his friends, noticing Sam and Emily's averted eyes and Casey sending them death glares. "Am I missing something?"

"No," Casey, Sam, and Emily said still not looking at him. They spent the rest of the lunch period eating in uncomfortable silence, all of them scattering the second the bell rang.

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Wednesday**

"Hi Sam," Casey greeted, as she casually leaned against the locker next to his.

"Hey. Just give me a second then we can head to class," he replied as he continued to switch around his books from his locker to his book bag. After a moment of silence, he looked over at Casey who was biting her lip. "Something on your mind?"

She opened her mouth a few times, trying to figure out where to start. Sam sighed, closing his locker and grabbing her elbow to lead her over to sit on the stairs.

"Is this about Derek?"

She smiled sheepishly at him, nodding her head. "Emily told me that you know about my current… situation. And if that wasn't enough, my clumsiness yesterday didn't make it too hard to figure out. So I figured that maybe we should talk, just cause I wanted to make sure that you were, you know, okay…with it? With me liking him?"

Sam smiled, chuckling lightly, "Casey… I'm dating Emily. Why would I have a problem with my ex-girlfriend (currently one of my closest friends) liking my best friend when I'm dating her's?" Casey let out a relived sigh, her body relaxing. "To tell you the truth it bothered me more when you liked… well, pretty much any other guy you've liked since we broke up. With the exception of Alex, who I should tell you always reminded me of Derek."

Casey scoffed, "Shut up?!"

"No I'm totally serious! He has the brown hair with the melodramatic cut, he's tall, mediocre student, stubborn… second string _hockey forward_—"

"So what you're saying is that subconsciously I was dating Alex because he was a substitute Derek?!"

"Out of the mouth of babes," Sam stated smugly, gesturing at her.

Casey shoved him playfully. "Don't call me babe!"

They smiled at each other before looking away and enjoying a moment of comfortable silence.

"Sam can I ask you something?" Casey spoke, wringing her hands together nervously.

"Shoot."

"Do you think there's any chance that maybe he—"

"Am I interrupting anything?" Derek asked, approaching the stairs.

Sam's mouth opened. He glanced at Casey before looking back at Derek. "Well actu—"

"Nothing? Excellent. So what are we doing today after school?"

"I'm gonna head to the library," Casey said putting her book bag on her shoulder as she stood up. "I'll see you guys later."

Derek grabbed her hand and pulled her back to them. "You don't have to go. Plans for today can involve you too."

"Thanks but I have a previous engagement."

"What are you gonna hang out with your new lover, DJ?" Derek mocked.

Casey smiled, feeling amused and more than a little excited about Derek's obvious disapproval about her liking a guy.

Sam smirked at Casey, then at Derek. "You sound a little bothered by that D."

"Psh! No." Derek stated, waving his hand dismissively. "Just wondering why I didn't notice Klutzilla's return. I need to know these things in advance so I can get in the maximum amount of pleasure from Casey's embarressment." He turned and looked at her, using an Italian accent to say, "A klutzy Casey makes a me a happy!"

Casey smirked internally, toying with the idea of using this imaginary guy to make Derek jealous. But once he had finished talking she just rolled her eyes. Both at his insult and at deciding that games like that were too childish for her. Even though she knew they weren't too childish for him. "Derek there is no DJ. Em was just joking around about me liking a guy cause I've been so clumsy lately."

"Oh. Whatever. Not like I really care," Derek said attempting to sound nonchalant. "But out of pure curiosity, _again_, not that I really care, what are your plans for today?"

"Auditions for the fall musical are after school, so I won't be home til after diner."

"Then I guess I'll just see you at home tonight?"

"Okay. See you Sam!" Casey started to walk away, but then stopped looking at Derek pointedly.

"What?!"

Casey looked down, Derek's eyes following her gaze to his hand still holding hers at their side. He released it, stuffing both hands into his pockets. He turned and started walking down the hall, avoiding both Casey and Sam's eyes. "Let's go Sammy."

Sam raised his eyebrows at her, rubbing her on the arm reassuringly before following after Derek. Casey bit her lip, trying to contain the giddiness that was rising up her in as she watched them walk away.

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**The next chapter brings about some interesting revelations for Derek. Review and I'll post quicker!**


	9. Wednesday Evening

09/12/2007 21:38:00

**I just found out that Kit Weyman is in a hip hop/rap band name **_**Two Left**_** with his cousin Tosh. Kit's front name for the band is Kaynose. Haha. Seriously cannot stop laughing about it. It's just so funny seeing 'Sam' rapping and wearing his hat sideways. Their myspace is myspace**_dot_**com/twoleft and their main site is twoleft**_dot_**ca. Go visit so you can join in on my laughter. AH! It's SO weird!**

**What really creeped me out is that with facial hair, Kit looks like my ex-boyfriend's twin.**

**On with the story.**

**Disclaimer: Whatever.**

**------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Wednesday Afternoon**

Casey opened the backdoor and smiled when she saw Derek sitting at the island, reading a comic. She found it strange that she saw this pastime of his as endearing rather than childish.

"Hey," she said, her voice laced with a mild chuckle as she threw her book bag onto a chair.

"Hey Casey," Derek stated casually. His eyes left his comic to glance at her out of the corner of his eye as she plopped down on the stool next to him. "How'd the audition go?"

"I think I did really good, but I have to wait until next week to know if I got the part or not."

"Ehh, you're a shoe in. Don't worry about."

A small smile graced Casey's face as she shyly bit her lip. "Whatca doing?"

He turned to look at her, swallowing deeply when he felt his stomach do a flop the moment their eyes connected. "Just waiting for Sam to pick me up." He held up his slice of pizza. "Want some?"

She put her hand on his, bringing the pizza to her mouth to take a bite. "Thanks."

"No problem," He choked out before stuffing the rest of the slice in his mouth. He stared at her for a moment, suddenly very aware of his heartbeat. _What the hell is wrong with me? _He thought, tearing his eyes away from her to stare blankly at the comic book. _This is Casey. She doesn't make me nervous. She's the girl that shakes me up, yes, but the fucking butterflies that have been fluttering in my stomach since yesterday? Ha. That sounded like something Casey would talk about when she's crushing on a guy… Hmm. Casey. God does she smell incredible._

Casey was completely unaware of Derek's deep inhalation of her scent as she sat comfortably next to him. Her eyes casually wondered around, settling on various objects in the room before landing on Derek. She lifted her head and studied him for a moment, her brow scrunching in thought, before he noticed her gaze and looked up at her.

"What?"

"Why are you only this nice to me when we're alone?"

"What do you mean?" Derek asked furrowing his brow.

Casey looked down at the counter, tracing the pattern with her finger. "I mean that sometimes when we're alone we talk to each other like—well like normal people do. You know, sans insults every other sentence. But in public you always have to add in at least one demeaning statement with every conversation." She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "It's really not that bad compared to how you used to be with me, but I was just wondering why you do it."

Derek looked at the floor, almost as if he expected it to hold the answer to her question. "I don't… really know why, I just… do."

"Are you really that embarrassed that you don't hate me anymore, that you feel like you have to pretend that you still do in public?"

Derek's head jerked up, the sickened tightening of his stomach pushing away the butterflies. "I never hated you. I couldn't stand you at first but it never got to the point where I didn't like you so much that I hated you."

Casey smiled weakly, reassuring him that she understood with a nod. But a solemn look remained on her face. She opened her mouth to speak when Derek's cell phone rang, interrupting their conversation. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered.

"What up?"

"Yo D-man I'm outside," Sam's voice said.

"Be out in a sec," Derek replied before he hung up the phone, returning it to his pocket. He pushed away from the island and stood, starting to walk out of the kitchen. Just before he reached the door he stopped and turned to look at Casey over his shoulder.

"Casey." She turned around, her pondering eyes locking with his gentle ones. "I'm sorry for making you think that I hated you."

She nodded at him again, and he gave her a gentle smile before walking out of the kitchen. She turned back to the island and propped her chin in her hand, sighing as the front door closed.

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Wednesday Night**

"And I **beat** you again! You're totally off your game tonight, D." Sam said punching him in the arm jokingly.

"I am not off my game Sammy." Derek stated sounding insulted. "It's just… I'm just used to Babe Raider 3. Four is a whole new playing field that you are only _slightly_ better at than me because you own it and I don't."

"That was the 7th game that I whooped your ass in!"

Derek grunted, sounding disinterested as he tossed the game controller to the floor and leaned back into Sam's couch.

Sam felt taken aback by Derek giving up on defending himself so quickly. "What's up with you tonight?"

"Nothing."

"Dude!"

Derek sighed, looking at Sam hesitantly before he sat up to face him.

"Okay. Um… I have something I should talk to you about."

Sam waved his hands in a circular motion, indicating for him to continue.

"It, uh, involves breaking a very important male code, involving… an, uh, ex-girlfriend." Derek coughed out the laughed word, looking down at his hands.

"An ex-girlfriend of mine?" Sam asked gesturing to himself.

"Yeah. I, uh, you know, kinda just realized I like her."

"Who?" Sam asked casually, taking a gulp from his pop can.

Derek looked everywhere but at Sam as he cleared his throat and mumbled out Casey's name.

Sam choked on his drink, some of it dribbling out of his mouth onto his shirt.

"CASEY?! Did you just say you like Casey? As in the 'I wanna make out with her' like, not the 'She's cool enough to hang with' like?"

Derek looked at his surprised friend, raising his eyebrows and shrugging as if to say yes.

"Whoa."

"Shocked, Sammy?" Derek asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

"Yeah. But not that you like her," He looked up at Derek and smirked. "Just that you finally admitted it."

It was Derek's turn to look surprised as he turned to glare at Sam. "What do you mean?"

"D, I've known for like 6 months."

Derek stood up suddenly and shouted, "Dude then why didn't you tell **me**?! You said all that 'Derek, why aren't you dating anymore?' crap last weekend when you already knew? I think it's your duty as my best friend to fucking tell me when I like a girl!"

"Man, We couldn't have been dropping more obvious hints," Sam exclaimed, sounding more than a little amused.

"We?"

"Emily."

"Figures."

"Yep."

Sam got up off the couch and put his hand on Derek's shoulder. "Even if I came straight out and told you, do you think you would have listened to me? You would have laughed in my face, told me to get medicated and then? Well you probably woulda hit me."

"Yeah that does sound like me." Derek stated under his breath, looking to the side. He shrugged looking back at Sam. "So you're cool with it, me…liking…you know… your ex?"

Sam shrugged, "Me and Casey's thing is long over. And besides her best friend is dating her ex. Why would I be opposed to my best friend dating mine? Wow does this conversation feel like Déjà vu."

"So you would be cool with me acting on it?" Derek asked not noticing Sam's last comment.

"Yeah. It's about damn time."

"Man this is so twisted. When did I start liking _Casey_?! And why? Well I mean I know why. She's beautiful and she funny, sweet, caring. She's totally schizophrenic, yes, but for some reason that doesn't bug me. Well it bugs me but not always in a bad way. Oh and her nose does this cute little scrunchy thing when we're fighting. It looks kinda like…" He trailed off, breaking out of his trance when he saw Sam smirking at him.

"Dude you spend way to much time with Casey."

Derek rolled his eyes and picked up his coat. "Drive me home?"

"What you wanna tell her now?"

Derek looked at Sam with a _duh! _expression.

"Glad to know you're already picking your girl over me." Sam stated, chuckling as he followed Derek out the door.


	10. Still Wednesday Evening

11/12/2007 12:43:00

**Thanks you all so much for all the reviews. You guys always brighten my day!**

**So who's ready for a confession?!**

**Disclaimer: LWD is still not in my possession, but…**

**Ob la de, ob la da, life goes on yaaaa! La la la la, life goes on!**

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Still Wednesday Night**

Derek yanked open the front door, throwing his jacket on to the rack as he ran up the stairs, mildly acknowledging his father's greeting with a wave. He rushed past his room to Casey's door, knocking before walking in, not waiting for a reply.

"Must I remind you yet again of a thing called common courtesy?" She said looking at him annoyed from her spot on her bed.

"I knocked," he stated, looking at her like that was obviously supposed to be enough.

"Whatever," Casey said returning to her book. "What's up?"

He turned around and closed the door before facing her and rubbing his hands together, a grin on his face. "I know why I'm nicer to you when we're alone than when we're with other people."

She put her book down swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, suddenly feeling interested. "I'm listening."

Derek began pacing slowly in front of her as he spoke. "Okay so when we're alone, I'm just being normal, as you said. I act without thinking. I say what I feel like saying to you and do what I feel like doing."

"And how is that different from any other day of the week?" Casey interrupted.

"Shh!" He said pausing his movements to look at her crossly.

She held up her hands, "Sorry! Please continue."

He began his slow pacing again. "When we're in public, I sometimes feel like I have to pretend to still not like you, like you said I did. The first time I noticed myself doing it was at the movies last weekend with Sam and Emily. When you went to the bathroom, Sam said something to me about paying for you. I knew what I was doing, but I didn't really realize why I did it until tonight. Subconsciously, I've been changing anything that would normally be considered a casual exchange, into what was normal behavior for me towards you when we were 15. I say and do obnoxious things to you because, _subconsciously_, I've been trying to hide the fact that… I like you."

"Although I'm astonished that you know the meaning of the word _subconsciously_, I will ignore that in order to remind you that we've established that you like me now. Now could you please get to the part where I'm amazed?"

Derek stopped his pacing, staring at her as though contemplating whether or not he should continue. He took another moment before finally sitting down next to her. He looked down at her hand resting on the comforter before taking it into his own. She glanced down at their hands before looking wide eyed at his face.

"No Casey," He said lifting his head to look at her directly, his eyes filled with a nervous confidence. "I _like_ you. As in 'Can't stop thinking about you, laying awake at night, _my God _is she amazing, like you."

Casey gulped and closed and opened her eyes as though she was trying to wake herself from a dream. It wasn't until she noticed how hard her heart was pounding that she realized that it wasn't.

"I don't know when it happened. I think it was more of a gradual thing that came with us being forced to get along in order to not go crazy. The being rude to you in public thing happened cause the more we were forced together, the more I realized I liked having you around. I like to spend time with you and to talk to you. I like seeing you every night before I go to sleep and I like waking up and knowing your waking up in the next room. I like seeing the fire in your eyes and hearing the passion in your voice when you're doing something you believe in. I like that I can never quite figure you out. Just when I think I can predict your every move you come out of left field and surprise the shit out of me. But then at the same time I feel like I know you better than I know myself.

"Casey I like that you never, ever let me get what I want just because I smile at you while I'm taking it. You challenge me in a way that no one ever really has before." Derek stopped to take a breath and smiled at an overwhelmed looking Casey. "But don't think I've turned completely chick movie on you cause you still really annoy the crap out of me a majority of the time."

Casey's face relaxed a little as she smiled, enjoying the slight break from his emotionally charged speech. Derek smiled back at her turning his body to face her more directly as he grabbed her other hand in his.

"I realized tonight that when we're with other people, I'm the old Derek. I've been afraid that if I don't act the way I used to, they would see how much I actually like you. I wasn't ready to admit that to myself yet, let alone explain it to other people. Being unnecessarily mean was a cover up. One that's never necessary when we're alone, cause when we're alone it's just us doing our thing, in our special, weird, freaky, undefinable relationship. We've never felt like siblings. We're not friends. Not lovers. Just… Derek and Casey."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his heart, which had been beating wildly for the last 10 minutes. He meant every word he said but he still couldn't believe he just freely gave all of that information to Casey. He opened his eyes again to see her staring at him with an unreadable expression.

"Okay." Derek stated slowly, biting his lip. "I think that's the most amount of words I've said without anyone else talking. And since **I'm** overwhelmed by what I just said (and, uh, more than a little embarrassed), I'm gonna leave now and let that pretty little head of yours do what it does best and go over every word until you're blue in the face."

Derek stood up, hesitating before he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her right hand. He pulled away, putting his hands in his pockets, and left the room, the door closing after him.

Casey sat frozen in place, her hands laying numbly on her lap from when they fell out of his grasp. He said he was giving her time alone. To think. To process.

A smile broke out on Casey face when she realized that for once, she _wasn't_ analyzing every word.

As she flopped back onto her bed she tried to think over everything he said. She tried to think about how complicated things could get with them if they weren't careful. She tried to think rationally and carefully. Strategically.

But the only thing she could bring herself to care about was Derek.

Him admitting to his feelings for her didn't make her feel like it was necessary to figure anything out. She didn't feel it required any thinking at all because it was all so painfully _right _that she had to wonder why it took them both so long to realize it.


	11. Later Wednesday Evening

13/12/2007 21:47:00

**It's short yes, but I think it's totally worth it.**

**Disclaimer: Nothing to disclaim cept for LWD. Oh and smooches.**

**.:winkwink:.**

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Later Wednesday Night**

Casey looked over at her clock to see that it was just after midnight. She smiled and got out of bed, deciding that two hours was long enough to torture Derek. Sure she knew from the moment he left her room what she wanted to do about his confession, but having the upper hand with Derek only happened every so often and she was going to let it last for as long as she could.

Walking into his room, she glanced at him before quietly closing his door. She turned around and took notice that Derek eyes were closed and that he was sitting cross legged in the middle of his bed. The backs of his hands were resting on his knees, each thumb forming an O with each index finger. She crossed her arms and suppressed a laugh when he let out a soft, moaning, "Omm," the last letter dragging.

"Uhh Derek? What are you doing?"

At the sound of Casey's voice, Derek's head whipped around and he pushed himself off his bed, one hand moving to rub nervously against the back of his neck.

"Uh, nothing!"

Casey continued to stare at him, smug amusement playing across her features. "Were you _meditating_?"

He chuckled nervously, letting out a "Phff!" and waving his hand at her dismissively.

"Oooo I'm so gonna use this," she said evilly, narrowing her eyes.

"Hey you always said it was a surefire way to relax and since I've been waiting with nothing to do for, oh about _**two hours**_, I thought I'd give it a try. Didn't work by the way."

"You probably did it wrong," Casey replied shrugging.

"You can't meditate wrong!" Derek exclaimed.

"_**You**_ can! Besides don't you always say that you're the exception to every rule?"

Derek rolled his eyes at her, deciding to give up on their pointless argument. They stood in silence looking at each other for a moment before they felt the weight of their situation return.

"Casey—" "Derek—", they started at the same time.

"Go ahead," Derek told her, using his hand to gesture for her to continue.

"Thanks." Casey took a deep breath before she started pacing, wringing her hands together in the process. "Derek, There are so many things going through my head right now. So many questions I have and so many things that need to be discussed at length."

He nodded his head, looking uncomfortably at the floor as she took a step closer to him.

"I've been thinking for the last two hours about all the things that were suddenly totally and irreversibly changed by what you said." She paused, gathering her courage. "But amidst all the complications, only one thought, or rather, one _question_, consumed me."

She paused again, taking another step closer to Derek, who was still gazing intently at the floor. Taking another deep breath she stated calmly, "What the hell took you so long?"

Derek's head jerked up and the nervous shuffling of his feet paused. They stood in silence, their bodies frozen as they searched each other's eyes.

Derek took a giant step forward and grabbed Casey by the waist, thrusting her into his arms and into his kiss. She let out a moan of surprise, her arms clutching at his biceps to steady herself. When she fully grasped what was going on, she smiled into his lips and kissed back, her hands trailing up his arms to wrap around his neck.

After a moment he pulled back, his arms moving to wrap around her back in a tight embrace. She opened her eyes to see his sparkling ones looking back at her from less than an inch away. They shared an overjoyed smile, their eyes remaining locked together as their lips reconnected over and over in small loving kisses.

They separated slightly, huge smiles still covering their faces and Casey pulled Derek into a hug to which he responded with such enthusiasm that it lifted her off her feet.


	12. Wednesday Night & Thursday Morning

**Warning: Major Dasey fluffiness ahead. May cause headache or vomiting. That or a severe case of the awwww!'s. **

**Very slight 'Sixteen Sparkplugs' spoiler. **

**I considered splitting this chapter into two but then I though… Nah!**

**Disclaimer: Although I do own some white bread, I do not own the lyrics to the song, "White Bread Boyfriend." I suggest you go look up all the lyrics. The song is hilarious.**

"_I guess I'm lonely, whatever that means, _

_but when I see you in your pre-embroidered jeans _

_I get this feeling, like, prob'ly in my heart _

_that most of the time, we should never be apart. _

_You're kinda pretty. I guess for now you'll do. _

_I mean, you're beautiful, nobody comes close to you... _

_and all that rubbish girls like to be told. _

_You gotta know this stuff when you are seventeen years old…"_

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Really Late Wednesday night**

"So are you like, my girlfriend now, or something?" Derek asked as he held Casey against his chest.

She scoffed, lifting her head to look at him, a playful smile tugging at her lips. "Is that seriously how you just asked me that?"

"What?" Derek exclaimed.

Casey scoffed again and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Okay. Casey—" He paused, his expression turning serious. "I wanna be your White Bread Boyfriend."

Casey burst out laughing, causing Derek's fake seriousness to break as he joined her.

"Oh that's just SO much better!" She stated, smiling widely.

"Hey the Lemon Demon concert last summer was the first time we hung out alone without fighting. Pretty monumental point in our relationship. And besides, need I remind you that you said that song sounded like me? Which I should say, despite agreeing with you then, I still find it mildly insulting."

"Well I think it's safe to say that after your little speech a couple hours ago, I will never think you don't know how to be romantic ever again."

"Damn straight. I know how to treat my woman." There was a pause as Derek's expression suddenly turned serious again. "So Casey, will you… be my girlfriend?"

She lifted her upper body, moving to place a soft kiss on his lips before pulling back to rest her forehead on his. "Duh!"

He laughed, relaxing even further into his pillows, her head falling back against his chest and their arms hugging each other possessively. He sighed in content, thinking that the last hour had to have been the best sixty minutes he'd ever experienced. Just getting to hold Casey, talking occasionally, a kiss here and there. He took a deep breath, relishing in the smell of her hair when he realized he still had something he'd been meaning to bug her about. He smirked and pulled her tighter into him.

"So that interesting thought you had on Saturday Night, the one that made you lie about being scared of a mouse…What was it?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?!" Casey said mysteriously, smirking into his chest.

"Cas-ey," Derek whined, his hands moving to clench into fists at his sides as he kicked his feet against the bed.

Casey laughed at him, shaking her head. "Baby."

"Yes muffin?" Derek said, his voice suddenly sugary sweet.

"_That _was not a term of endearment. I was calling you a baby."

"Buttface."

"Wow I've landed a real winner!"

"Thanks for noticing. Now will you tell me what really happened Saturday night?"

"Ugh! Fine. It's _possible _that I was in the middle of what one _might _call, a, um, jealous… rage…thing when I realized I liked you."

Derek threw his fist up in triumph, letting out an evil laugh. "Hahaha I knew it!"

Casey scoffed, sitting up to look at him as she smacked his chest. "You did not!"

"Did too!" he replied playfully, bringing himself into a sitting position across from her.

"How could you have _possibly_ known that a thought I had on Saturday involved me realizing I like like you, when you just figured out today that you like like me?"

"Cause my developmental reasoning skills are fantastic," He stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"That's because my superior brain can wrap itself around it's thoughts whereas yours cannot." Derek drummed his fingers together manically, giving the wall behind her a contemplative look. "In light of this information, I think that it is appropriate for you to repeat after me. Just to make sure we're on the same page. Say 'Derek is smarter than me.'"

"Smarter than I am," Casey corrected. "And haven't I done this before?"

"You tweaked it the first time so I say it doesn't count. Now say it."

Casey's eyes narrowed in on his, darkening, as her lips perched in defiance.

"No."

Derek lurched forward tackling Casey against the bed as he dove in to tickle her. She let out a giggle, thrashing her body in an attempt to get away.

He paused after a moment, looking at her with challenging eyes.

"Say it."

"No!"

Derek dove back in to her sides, Casey fighting to get free.

"Say it!"

"Okay, okay!" She gasped out, breathing deeply. "Derek…smart…me!"

"What was that?" he said, one hand stopping it's movements to cup his ear.

"Derek's smarter than me!"

Derek stopped tickling her, smiling triumphantly as he rolled down to lay next to her, propping his head up in his hand. His other hand reached out to brush the hair that was thrown in every direction away from her face. She let her eyes drift closed, sighing happily before he leaned down to give her a passionate kiss.

"You have no idea how good it feels to be able to do that," Derek said falling onto his back as he pulled her into his arms.

"Oh yes I do." She answered, placing a kiss on his chest and hugging him tightly.

They lay together for a few more hours, sometimes talking, sometimes silent, but mostly just enjoying the other's presence. Casey slipped out of Derek's room well after 4 in the morning (much to his protesting), neither of them caring that they only had a couple hours left before they had to get up for school.

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Thursday Morning**

"Good morning!" Casey beamed as she made her way into the kitchen, heading to the cabinet to pull out a bowl and cereal.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Nora inquired playing with her daughter's pony tail.

"Nothing in particular, just woke up on the right side of the bed!"

Casey smiled at her mother, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She moved to sit next to Edwin at the island, ruffling his hair adoringly. He reached up to fix his 'do' and shot her a puzzled expression. Derek walked into the kitchen, smiling widely, fully dressed and groomed.

"Derek! You're ready for school on time?" George asked him incredulously.

"That I am Pops."

He sat down across from Edwin, grabbing the bowl in front of his brother and taking a huge spoonful. His eyes connected flirtatiously with Casey's, both of them holding back a smile before looking away.

"Somebody must have slipped these two some happy pills," Lizzie stated, putting her bowl in the sink. "I have to get out of here, Casey and Derek's 'good morning' is creeping me out."

"I'm with her. Later fam." Edwin said grabbing his bag as he followed Lizzie out the door.

"I wanna leave too!" Marti jumped up off the floor and ran into the living room singing "Jolene needs to get ready for school!"

"Who's Jolene?" Nora whispered to her husband.

"New imaginary friend."

"What happened to Daphne?"

"She got married." George replied, giving Nora a peck on the cheek. "I gotta go. Bye kids." Derek and Casey said goodbye to him as he grabbed his briefcase off the counter and left the house.

"Bye Georgie. Marti! We gotta get you to school sweetie!"

"We're coming!" She shouted back from the stairs.

"Derek drive Casey to school please?"

"Already planning on it."

"Thanks." Nora kissed them both on the forehead and ran into the living room, quickly shrugging her coat on and shooing Marti out the door. Derek walked over to the kitchen doorway peering into the living room to make sure that his step-mom and sister were gone. Once the front door closed, he turned back around and leaned over Casey, his hands resting on either side of her on the island.

"Hi," she breathed grabbing the sides of his shirt in her fists to pull him closer.

He leaned over and kissed her deeply, before pulling back to rest his forehead on hers. "Morning. Again."

She giggled and pecked him lightly on the lips. They stared at each other for a moment before pulling apart to finish their breakfast before school.

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Later Thursday Morning**

"Do you see what I'm seeing?" Emily said glancing sideways at Casey and Derek walking down the hallway.

"Yeah. The color of these halls really is dreadful eh?" Sam replied reaching out to touch the wall.

"_Sam!_"

"What? So they're walking the halls together? Big deal."

"And they're talking. And smiling way too much." Emily squealed and put her hands over her mouth excitedly. "You don't think they finally told each other do you?!"

A look of realization crossed Sam's features as he smiled nervously down at Emily. "Oh yeah. Heh heh. Iiiii uh, may have forgotten to tell you that Derek mentioned _something_ last night about liking Casey."

"Sam! We've been together for the last 20 minutes and you just decided to mention it now?!"

"Didn't come up," Sam shrugged.

She rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder before running up to Casey and grabbing her forearms to get her attention, looking at her intently.

"Morning Em. Whatca doing?" Casey asked looking at her like she was crazy.

Emily said nothing and dropped her arms, only to grab Derek's in the same manner she had Casey's. After studying his face for a few more seconds, Emily squealed, jumping up and down as she pulled Derek into a hug.

"Did you forget to medicate your girlfriend this morning?" Derek asked Sam, his arms pinned to his sides by Emily's tight grip.

"Uh Em… Emily! Your suffocating him, let go," Casey said prying her best friend's arms off of Derek. "What's up with you?"

Emily clapped her hands together and squealed again. "You guys finally stopped being stupid and told each other how you feel!"

Casey bit her lip, attempting to hide her smile, before she nodded vigorously and joined in on Emily's excitement.

Derek let out a nervous chuckle and pulled Sam to the side, facing away from the girls. "You told her I told you didn't you?"

"Well, _yeah_."

"Dude you suck. Now will you please shut her up?"

"Oh yeah cause _my_ girlfriend's the only one being obnoxious at the moment," Sam replied sarcastically.

They both turned back around, moving to lead their enthusiastic girlfriends to a more discreet area of the hallway.

"Baby you need to calm down," Sam said through his teeth giving a passerby a polite smile and a head nod. "People are staring,"

"I can't help it I'm excited for them." Sam eyes spoke volumes as they stared into hers. "Okay, okay sorry! I'm over it." Emily replied taking a deep breath before looking over at Derek and Casey. She could tell they were trying to be careful in how they stood together, but she also noticed his left arm and her right arm were hanging down, the backs of their hands touching intimately. "So how did it happen, when did it happen? Did you tell her first or did she? Did you kiss? I bet it was so perfect! Oo Oo, We can officially double date now!"

Derek rolled his eyes, but failed in his attempt to hide a smile. He looked over at the only other person he viewed as sane out of the three he was standing with. "Sammy can we please leave? All this girly shrieking is giving me a headache."

"I'm past headache and into migraine, let's move." Sam put his hand on the small of Emily's back giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, before he pulled back and started to walk away.

Derek leaned in slightly towards Casey and whispered, "Tomorrow night." They exchanged a smile as he rubbed his pinky finger across the back of her hand and walked off with Sam.

Emily and Casey both sighed as they tilted their heads to check out their respective boyfriend's from the back.

"Damn it's nice to watch him go," Emily said, licking her lips.

"No kidding. Although I find it kind of strange that a couple of years ago I was checking out Sam and you were checking out Derek."

"Yeah let's just not go there. Onto the present! Or…future, rather. What was that about tomorrow night?"

Casey's seemingly permanent smile widened as she and Emily started towards their class. "He's taking me out on our first date!"

"Finally! But before we go into that, you owe me an explanation as to why you didn't call and tell me about this the minute after it happened."

"Well I was kinda busy for most of the night," Casey replied sheepishly.

"Tell me everything!"

They shared another squealing-excited-hand-grabbing-jump fest in the middle of the hall before Casey started her story. "Okay well I guess it started yesterday at school when Derek came up to me and Sam talking….."


	13. Friday Night

16/12/2007 21:55:00

**Disclaimer: I don't own everything that I don't own in this chapter. Saying more than that right now would result in the destruction of my attempts to build mystic.**

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Friday Night**

Casey pulled out her black pumps from her closet and sat down on her bed to slip them on. She sang happily to herself, getting up to spin around in front of the mirror, making the bottom of her pink dress twirl out.

"Casey are you—" Derek started, pushing open her bedroom door.

"Derek!" Casey yelled running to throw her body against the door so it slammed shut. "It's bad luck to see me before the actual date starts! Which is in about 15 minutes when you slowly stand up from your place on the couch in the living room to stare in astonishment at my beauty as I walk down the stairs!"

"Casey, first of all it's a date, not our wedding day. We're allowed to see each other beforehand. And as for the official start of the date, if you can tell me exactly when I started living one of those retarded teen movies you love to watch, then I will gladly oblige to the whole staring stupidly as you walk down the stairs thing."

"Just go wait in the living room, I'll be down in 5 minutes."

"Fine!"

Casey pressed her ear up against her door, waiting until she heard Derek footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs before she opened it. She didn't need the 5 minutes, but it felt very first date like to say that she needed more time. She took one last look in the mirror, and gave herself a satisfactory smile.

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"CASEY! GET YOUR SMOKIN' BOD DOWN HERE!" Derek shouted up to her 15 minutes later.

_Good thing nobody else is home,_ Casey thought as she made her way down the stairs. By the time she reached the landing, Derek, who was sitting in his chair watching hockey, still hadn't noticed her presence in the room. Casey cleared her throat, attempting to get his attention.

"Finally!" Derek said as he clicked off the TV, turning around to look at her. "I was starting to think…" His face froze stupidly as he stood up, fumbling, slowly looking her up and down.

"Ok I mostly wasn't serious about the staring at me as if I was in slow motion, but it was nice of you to play along," She commented, patting him on the shoulder as she walked over to the entryway to pick up her purse and Derek's jacket. It wasn't cold enough for him to actually need it, but she knew he'd want to wear it anyways. Derek let out a whoosh of breath, whistling in approval to himself as he looked at her. He shook his head to clear it before moving to stand behind Casey and pulling his keys out of his pocket.

"Ready?"

"Let's go!" She replied cheerfully, allowing him to lead her out the door by his hand on the small of her back. "So where _are_ we going?"

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"Is this _really_ necessary?"

"Yes."

"Derek, I get that you're trying to be all smooth and mysterious, but blind folding me on our first date isn't exactly my idea of romance."

"Come onnnn," Derek droned as he lead her across the parking lot. Once they reached their destination, Derek stopped and let go of Casey, silently walking away.

"Derek?"

"Hold on."

Casey huffed and put her hands on her hips. She heard shuffling and a string of curse words before light shone from the outside of her blindfold. Derek walked up behind her, his hands holding her hips and his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Ok. You can look now."

Once she removed the blindfold, Casey's jaw dropped. A string of white lights were hanging elegantly from a gazebo in a secluded section of the park. There was a projector pointed at a white sheet hanging down from one side of it, and a picnic set out in the middle.

"Derek!" Casey exclaimed, looking amazed at the scene before her.

"Do you like it?"

She turned around to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she leaned in to give him a quick kiss on the lips.

"I love it."

"Good."

Derek pulled away, grabbing her hand and leading her to sit on the blanket. "So for tonight's meal we have Lemon Chicken and rice and for desert we have chocolate covered strawberries and cheese cake."

"Oooooo. My favorite. May I inquire as to what movie we're watching?"

Derek smirked, sending her a wink as he reached over and turned on the projector. A wide grin spread across Casey's face as the slow strumming of 'Moon River' filled the air. She turned to look at Derek as he sat down next to her, a gentle smile playing at his lips.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's…"

"Also your favorite."

"Derek, I'm speechless. I cannot believe you set all this up. The gazebo, the food, the movie? It's all very… not something I would've expected from you."

"Yeah well you make me do all sorts of things that I cringe about later. But don't give me all the credit. I had a lot of help from Sam and Emily," he said humbly.

"It's perfect." She stated leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now let's eat, I'm starving!"

Casey laughed, slipping off her shoes and tucking her legs under her. They shared a smile as Derek passed her her plate and settled in next to her.

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Just as Audrey Hepburn had at last found Cat in the alley, a shrill ringing filled the air, causing Casey to jump. She reached blindly across Derek's chest to feel around in her purse for her phone.

"Don't answer that," Derek breathed between kisses, using the hands that were on her neck and back to keep her against him. She complied for a moment, before she put her hand on his chest, pushing herself up to look at her phone.

"It's my mom. I have to answer, it could be important."

"Or it could be nothing," he stated stealing the phone from her hand and craning his neck to reach up and kiss her again.

"Mmmmmm Derek, come on."

"Ugh, Fine!" he growled in frustration, sitting up as she snatched her cell phone from him.

"Hey Mom," Casey said cheerfully.

"Hi sweetie. Are you okay? You sound out of breath."

"Uh yeah I'm fine. Derek was just— uh, bothering me," Casey replied stifling a laugh. He chuckled as he sat up to place a kiss on her jaw line.

"Oh. Ok. Could you guys do me a favor before you come home?"

Derek brushed Casey's hair off her shoulder, moving his lips slowly down her neck to suck on her collar bone. She bit her lip, suppressing a moan. "Mmm hmm."

"Could you stop at the store and pick up some snacks for tonight? I didn't have time to go grocery shopping this week."

"_Mmm…_ Um, uh… yeah no problem," She managed to get out. "We should be home in about an hour."

Derek groaned, pulling completely away from Casey to flop down onto his back against the blanket.

"Thanks! See you when you get home."

"Bye." She closed her phone, stuffing it back into her purse. "My mom wants us to stop off for some snacks for game night."

"Damn. Game night. I forgot." Derek groaned before pulling at her waist to bring her down against him. "Couldn't we just blow it off to make out?"

"As incredibly tempting as that sounds, no, we can't. My mom has been planning this for the last two weeks. We've all been so busy lately that it'll be good for us all to get some quality time together."

"I think making out constitutes quality time."

"_De-rek_!"

"Yeah I know, let's go," he replied, reluctantly pushing himself up to put away the projector.


	14. Still Friday Night

18/12/2007 23:58:00

**Don't hurt me.**

**Disclaimer: I own Pork Rinds, Cheetos, Fun-ions, rice cakes, the game 'Go-Fish', and Life With Derek. Mike is also my sex slave.**

**Oh I'm sorry. **

**Did I forget to mention it's opposite day?**

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Still Friday Night**

"Fried Pork Rinds? Derek, that's worse than the Cheetos!" Casey said, yanking the bag out of his hand to put them back on the shelf.

"How can it possibly be worse than 'The cheese balls of death'?" He replied using fingers quotations, mocking her previous statement.

"They're fried! It's like a heart-attack in a bag."

Derek pulled the bag off the shelf and hugged it to his chest. "Bring on the pain."

"Ugh! Fine, whatever. I'm gonna go get a veggie platter so that at least one thing we bring home doesn't have artificial colors and flavors. Meet you at the register."

As soon as Casey turned the corner of the aisle in the grocery store, Derek smirked and snatched a bag of Fun-ions off the shelf. "Put it back Derek!" Casey yelled and he threw it back on the shelf, frowning, as he started walking to the front of the store. He gazed at the shelves as he went, casually picking things up here and there, before he rounded the corner to see a frightened looking cashier holding up her hands. Derek jerked back into the aisle out of sight, his heart suddenly pounding.

"Put all the cash from the drawer into the bag. NOW! Faster!"

"Okay! I'm doing it!"

"Hey kid! You in the leather jacket! Come out where I can see you."

Derek took a deep breath, holding his hands up and coming into view of the thief pointing the gun. Looking around he noticed three or four other frightened customers standing nearby, their wallets and purses scattered on the ground. "Look man, I don't want any trouble, just take the cash and leave."

"Throw me your wallet," he said using the gun to indicate to the ground in front of him.

Derek reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his wallet and threw it down in front of the man. The man picked it up off the ground and thumbed through it, taking out the money before throwing it back to the ground.

Out of the corner of his eye, Derek saw Casey making her way up an aisle, looking down at the item she was holding. He silently begged for her look up. If there was ever a good time to be in each other's heads, it was now. Feeling as though he was moving slow motion, Derek looked back and forth between Casey and the man waving the gun around, trying desperately to figure out a way to keep her hidden from him. Casey finally looked up just as she rounded the corner, the veggie platter slipping from her hands and a shriek escaping her lips. The thief jumped fearfully, whipping around, aiming the gun at Casey and pulling the trigger.

Time speed up again and Derek felt his heart stop, a piercing scream of protest escaping his lips. He jumped in front of Casey, wrapping his arms around her and pushing her into the shelf behind them in an attempt to shield her from the bullet. Fearful shouting filled the room and the man ran out the door, not even bothering to take the bag of money from the counter. The frantic sounds of the other customers faded into the background. The only sound reaching Derek's ear being Casey's breath coming out in deep huffs against his face.

They stared into each other's wide eyes in shock, momentarily frozen in place, before their legs gave out and they slid onto the floor. Casey began shaking, her terrified eyes looking into Derek's as a tear slid down his cheek. Pulling their eyes away, they looked down at the blood flowing steadily out of the other's stomach.

"It went all the way through you…" Casey said numbly, feeling a cold wash over her body. She moved her gaze from Derek to look at herself, feeling despondent at the thought of the blood staining her favorite dress. "It went all the way through you to me."

"I was trying to protect you…" he replied, his body beginning to shake as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"I know…" She breathed, smiling tiredly at him.

Realizing that he could no longer feel his body, Derek leaned into Casey, his cheek resting against hers so he could whisper in her ear. "I love you, Casey. I love y—you more than I ever thought I… could love."

"I love you more..." she replied sleepily.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, a sound resembling a light chuckle escaping his lips. "You always ha—have to have the last… word." He did his best to give her a soft kiss on the cheek before letting his body relax, his weight falling against her.

Using all of her little remaining strength, Casey pulled back to look at him. Panic overtook her as the tears that had been pooling in her eyes finally cascaded down her face. Derek's eyes were blank, an empty stare being sent to the shelf of rice cakes holding Casey up.

"Nooo," she groaned out loudly, her heart breaking. "Don't leave me Derek. Please, I need you. Oh God! Noooo!"

As her life slowly drained from her body, it became harder and harder to breath through her sobs. But she clung to him as best she could, pleading for him to stay, in hopes that if she begged enough, he would.

"Y—you can't…. leave… Derek please…"

With a single teardrop sliding down her pale cheek, she took her last breath, her broken body crumbling on top of Derek's.

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Nora's gentle laugh filled the room as she slapped her hand on the table. "Go fish."

"You guys are all conspiring against me aren't you?!" Edwin groaned as he pointed around the table to each member of his family.

Lizzie glared at her step-brother. "Hey don't blame us. It's not our fault that you suck at the easiest game on the planet."

He stuck his tongue out at her. "The only family members I currently like are these two," He used his thumb to point at Derek and Casey, "And that's only cause they don't talk."

Everyone in the room looked over at the eldest two children of the McDonald-Venturi family. Their smiles faded away into expressions of guilt as the sound of steady beeping from multiple machines filled the hospital room.

Feeling the weight of impending depression falling over them all since the accident, Nora had decided that keeping the plans from two weeks ago for a game night tonight would be a good idea. A way to hopefully temporarily relieve the constant fear and pain they had endured in the last week. But having forgotten, even if it was just for a moment, caused more pain in each of them, everything suddenly hitting them tenfold.

George got up from chair and moved to pick up the silent Marti curled up next to Derek on his bed. She let out an angry moan, that being the first sound having escaped her lips since the accident. Nora started to cry again at the sight of the normally vibrant Marti still looking so small and calm. George moved away from his daughter who wouldn't allow him to comfort her to wrap his arms around his wife.

The sound of a chair violently hitting the wall caused George, Nora, and Edwin's heads to jerk up just in time to see Lizzie angrily throw open the door and stomp into the hallway. Edwin started to go after her when the beeping of two machines simultaneously changed their rhythm. The calm steady sound changing into a faster, irregular beep.

Thinking that the change was negative, they all looked around in panic. Edwin charged into the hall yelling down to the nurses station for help. When he came back into the room he noticed the eyelids of Derek and Casey beginning to flutter open.

Nora ran to Casey's bed and George ran to Derek's both cradling their respective child's face in their hands as Marti burst into tears, her head moving even deeper into Derek's chest.

Derek and Casey glanced around the room before turning their heads to stare at each other in confusion.

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Raise your hand if aren't amused! Raise your foot if you're confused!**

**Questions to ask? Please do! Now click the button and review!**


	15. One Week Later

23/12/2007 08:02:00

**Sorry I kept you guys hanging after that last chapter. Christmas time craziness got in the way. I probably won't post again until after the 25th so I hope you all have a very Merry Derekus!!!**

**Disclaimer: Something along the lines of I own nothing but I wish I had a Michael Seater of my very own. Ya know, just for fun ;)**

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**One Week Later…**

"We were in a who ha for a who what now?!" Derek shouted at his father.

Casey cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into his ear, "A co-MA for ee-ighh-TA dayyy—sssS."

Derek slapped away her hands, looking at her annoyed.

"I heard what he said freakazoid!"

Casey and Derek were relaxing on the couch next to each other, their parents sitting on the coffee table across from them. It had been a whirlwind couple of days, with Derek and Casey waking up from their coma and being pronounced stable enough to finish out the recovery process at home.

During all the commotion and confusion, they hadn't been able to ask anyone exactly what had happened to them. They couldn't remember what they had last remembered(as confusing as that was) and they were both eager to know.

Derek looked up at his father and step-mother, curiosity and worry etched deeply in his eyes. "How did this happen?"

"You don't have any idea?" Nora asked looking between the two nervously.

Casey and Derek shared a glance, before shrugging in agreement that neither of them did.

"What's the last thing you remember, Casey?" George inquired.

Her brow furrowed as she tired to think. "Umm…I think being at school…maybe."

"What about you Derek?" Nora asked, redirecting her husband's question.

"Yeah school I think." He was silent for a moment as he searched his memory. "Oh! Wait. Casey was yelling at me for something. In the car! We were in the car!"

Casey's eyes perked in realization as annoyance overtook her expression. She lifted her hand and swiftly smacked Derek across the back of the head.

"OW!" Derek screeched looking at her angrily, rubbing his head. "What was that for?!"

"My Vaseline covered locker you halfwit!" He started to protest but she cut him off, turning to their parents. "The last thing I remember is trying to get him to admit to covering my locker with Vaseline. We were on our way home from school."

"Yes you were. Derek was driving." Nora said exchanging a hesitant look with George. Sensing her reluctance to tell them, he took over in explaining it to their children.

"A semi truck driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel, hit you guys, flipping the car a few times before it landed on the other side of the road. The police said that if your car had landed at an angle just a few inches over, the gas tank would have exploded."

Casey gasped, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth. Derek placed a calming palm on her knee, his other arm reaching around her shoulders, hugging her into him. Tears started forming in her eyes as she turned to look into Derek's shocked ones.

Despite his comforting actions and his gentle voice, he scoffed at her tears. "Casey, it happened to us. And obviously we're not dead, so turn downnnn the drama queen."

"So you guys really don't remember the accident at all?" Nora asked softly.

Derek and Casey shook their heads, before looking back to each other, as if the answers could be found that way.

After staring at each other for a few minutes it was as if someone pressed play on both of their memories.

**---------------------------------------------------------------------**

**18 days before…**

"_And seriously, I'm asking you once again, Why did you do it?!"_

_Derek growled angrily turning to look at her, "For the last freaking time I did not cover the inside of your locker with Vaseline!"_

_Movement in the corner of Casey's eye caused her to look forward. _

"_DEREK WATCH OUT!"_

_Derek jerked his head to the side just in time to see a semi truck coming at them, followed by the deafening sound of crunching metal. Their car flipped over, landing on it's side on the opposite end of the road._

_Derek groaned in pain as he felt unconsciousness calling out to him. He felt as if the entire world had gone deathly silent, but in the back of his mind, almost as if it were his own thoughts, he heard a person yelling for someone to call an ambulance._

"_Are you okay Casey?" He asked, turning his head slowly to look at her. Her body lay at an awkward angle, blood dripping down her cheek and her eyes halfway open, looking at him._

"_Derek…I can't—can't feel my… body." She breathed, struggling to stay awake._

"_Just hang on, Baby…" Derek said weakly reaching out to touch her cheek before the darkness overtook him._

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**For those of you that are royally confused here's a hint. Read the first chapter, then read the flashback in Chapter 15. And don't forget the fact that they were in a COMA.**


	16. Discovery

25/12/2007 22:43:00

**Only two chapters left after this. Everything should be cleared up for you guys about what happened, but if not then just ask me and I'll explain.**

**Disclaimer: .:calm happy sigh:. **_**Ahhh Life With Derek. How I love thee, I shall count the ways.**_** Actually maybe I shouldn't count the ways because then I'd start rambling on and on and on about stuff like Dasey and Michael Seater's hair, and I would just keep listing things, number after number until I **_**run out**_** of numbers (cause I'm bound and determined to find the last number on the planet if it kills me) but then I would just get distracted from what my original thought was for what I'm supposed to put here. Which is…? Hmm. I forgot… Oh yeah. I don't own Life With Derek or any of it's affiliates.**

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Three hours later, Casey was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling thinking over what she and Derek had been told that afternoon.

She had come upstairs almost immediately after she had remembered the accident, stating that she needed to be alone for a while. Everything that had happened in the last few weeks had been too much for her and those memories where the culmination of her feeling overwhelmed. Worst of all she still couldn't shake the feeling that she had had since waking up in the hospital. The feeling that she was empty. Like there were vital memories that she was missing. Like she was missing a piece of herself and her heart.

Suddenly her need to be alone was overtaken by her need to be comforted by someone.

No. Not just someone.

Derek. She needed Derek.

Getting up from her bed, she quietly made her way to his room. Opening the door, she looked in at him laying on his back, his hands behind his head, eyes locked on the ceiling. Upon hearing the click of his bedroom door latching closed, he glanced over, completely unsurprised by her presence.

He moved over to the far side of his bed, throwing the comforter up on the side closest to the door, inviting her in. She quickly got under the covers, pulling them up to her neck as she lay on her back next to him, a foot of bed space between them.

"I can't sleep without you in the same room," Derek offered, his eyes never leaving the ceiling.

"I just nearly had a panic attack being without you," Casey said reluctantly, feeling embarrassed for admitting her need for him, even though he had done it first. She turned on her side, staring at the side of his expressionless face.

"You know Derek, even before the accident, I was starting to feel like we were getting closer. Like we were becoming… _attached_ to one another. I mean we're always hanging out now with Sam and Emily. Kinda like we're friends?"

"No."

Derek took a few seconds before he turned his head, his eyes looking at Casey's confused and hurt expression. He rolled onto his side, shrinking the space between them to a few inches.

"Friends isn't the right word. I don't even know how exactly to describe what we are. We're just, I dunno…" He trailed off, looking at her intently.

"Casey and Derek," She finished simply, staring back at him.

"Yeah."

They laid together in silence, feeling comforted by it and the dark and the other person's proximity.

"Casey?" Derek whispered.

"Yeah?" She whispered back, her eyes studying his face.

"I'm gonna do something really stupid."

"Okay."

Derek's eyes darted down to her mouth as he slowly leaned forward, pressing his lips gently to hers. She responded to his kiss, her hand reaching up to rest softly on his neck.

Then suddenly, simultaneously, it hit them. Like movie of their memories. Clips flashing through their brains at cyber speed.

_Derek being forced to apologize by their parents for Casey's Vaseline covered locker. Him tricking her to go to the movies with Sam and Emily. Him paying for her. The restaurant. Jenna. Him wondering why he had no interest in dating anymore. Her masking jealousy with anger. Her spitting out to Emily her feelings for him. Spending the whole day in her room, never leaving her bed. Him insisting he would find out what she really shouted about the night before. Flirting. Hanging out in his room. Emily assuring her that it was okay to like him. Klutzilla's return. His jealousy when he thought she liked a guy. Her talking to Sam.__Her asking him why he was nicest to her when they're alone. Him realizing, through Sam, his feelings for her. Coming home and opening up to her about how much she means to him. Her coming to his room. Him meditating. Their first kiss. Cuddling. Talking. Laughing. Tickling. Hidden glances and smiles in front of their family. A morning after kiss. Him asking her out for their first date. Sam and Emily and them in the hallway. Him being mesmerized by her as they headed out for the date. The park, the gazebo, the food. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Making out. Nora asking them to stop at the store. Fighting about snacks. The thief pointing a gun at her. Him jumping in front of her. Their shock at the lack of pain and the amount of blood. Their proclamations of their love for each other. Him dying in her arms with her begging him not to leave her. Her sobbing as she took her last breath. _

"Derek!" Casey cried out desperately. "Oh god Derek!"

She had to struggle to breath, her hands now clutching desperately at Derek's neck and shoulders, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall. Derek's own breath was coming out in deep, gasping, struggling pants, tears glistening in his eyes, as he wrapped his arms around Casey, pulling her tightly to him.

The pain of realization had hit them. They had experienced death, and the death of the person they loved. Derek had felt every emotion he had experienced in their coma world as well as all of Casey's emotions, just as Casey had felt everything Derek had.

Once Derek's breathing had calmed enough for him to stop panicking, he gulped heavily pulling Casey into a passionate kiss. She wrapped her arms even tighter around him, kissing him back, feeling that if she stopped, she'd never get the chance to kiss him again.

She refused to move her mouth completely away from his, but she felt words on the tip of her tongue. Words that were dying to be spoken. Her lips brushed his as she gasped out a desperate, "I love you."

"Oh God Casey I love you so much," he whispered back into her mouth, closing his eyes tightly.

She waited a moment before she pulled away so that her lips were no longer resting on his, but every other part of her body remained tangled with Derek's.

"What do we…how...I don't—I can't process this. I mean—**How** did this happen?" She questioned looking at him, the desperation lacing her voice.

He slowly shook his head, exhaling deeply, his breathing almost at a normal rate. He took a few more moments to compose himself before he began speaking slowly and softly. "I don't know. I don't know how we both managed to get into a coma from an accident that left us no broken bones, and nothing worse than a few scratches. I don't know how or why we both seemed to be living in some coma world together. I don't know how we woke up at the same time, just minutes after dying. And I don't know why it took us being in that alternate world for us to finally see what we should have noticed long before." He stopped to look at her face, brushing a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "I'm not sure of anything, except that I love you. Even if the events of that week only happened in our shared dreams, for me, it was more real than anything I have ever experienced in my life."

"It is real," Casey said her tears finally having ceased. "I don't care if we were asleep. It was us. We were in control of our actions. Everything that I said and everything that I did in that—_coma world_, is how I would have reacted if it had happened in this world."

"Me too."

She felt the intense pressure on her heart release. Happiness at being alive and being with Derek took over. Casey moved her face next to Derek's again, their nose brushing together as their lips rejoined.

After several minutes, Derek pulled away and smiled at her, speaking in a pitch that almost sounded too normal for all they had gone through that day. "Well I can honestly say, that of all the directions I thought my life go, I never even considered that it would turn into a fucking sci-fi movie."

Casey laughed. A deep hearty laugh that made her throw her head back in joy. "Oh but you can't tell me that you never dreamed of having some scantily clad, hot alien chick, rescuing you from being probed by an evil alien dictator!"

Despite her ridiculous and random comment, Derek heard a deep heckling laughter pass through his lips. "Wait are you the scantily clad one? Cause if that's the case than I've had that dream a lot."

Casey glared at him angrily. Or as angrily as she could muster at that moment.

"But how'd you know about my fantasies?"

"Well apparently, we have some sort of telepathic connection."

They stared at each other blissfully, their smiles so wide that they both felt their cheeks beginning to hurt.

"I've never gone from feeling so depressed and unsettled, to feeling hopelessly lost and tragic, to feeling so utterly happy in less than an hour before." Casey said

"I know what you mean," Derek replied, gesturing emphatically. "I feel all jumpy and psychotic."

Casey's eyes narrowed in amusement as her smile turned into a cunning smirk, "Since when is psychosis a new thing for you?"

"Questing my sanity? That's a new one!" Derek said sarcastically, smirking back at her as he ran a hand through her hair. "But hey! You're the keener klutz who's in love with me and my psychotic ways so I guess that makes you just as twisted as I am."

"I guess so."

A while later their wide smiles had turned into tired grins and their happy energetic eyes were beginning to droop as the endorphins from all that they had just experienced wore off.

"I'm sleepy," Casey sighed, attempting unsuccessfully to keep her eyes open. "But I don't want to stop looking at you."

"Sleep," Derek whispered lazily, kissing her forehead. "I'll still be here when you open your eyes."

"Hmm…" Casey moaned contently as she drifted off into sleep.

Derek pulled his blanket up to their necks, pulling his love even snugger against himself, before following after her into a normal dreamland.

**------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"Georgie are you asleep?" Nora spoke to the darkness of her bedroom.

"Not even close," he responded sounding just as awake as she felt.

"Me neither." She remained silent for a moment, staring blankly at the ceiling. "I thought that once they were awake, out of the hospital, and back at home in their own beds, I would be able to sleep again."

"But now you're more worried than ever?" George stated more than asked as he turned to face his wife.

"Yeah why is that?"

"Because while they were in the hospital, we were both in the same room with them almost 24 hours a day, whereas now, we have a whole floor of house in between us and them. We can't just glance over at them to make sure they're okay."

Silence overtook the dark room again as Nora took in George's logical statement. George suddenly threw the covers off of them and flipped on the light switch. Nora stood up grabbing her robe and sliding on her slippers before she following her husband up the stairs.

They went to Casey's room first, Nora opening the door quietly and peering inside at her daughter's empty bed.

"She's not in here," Nora said her voice laced with a mild panic.

George placed calming hands on her shoulders. "Maybe she just went to the bathroom," he suggested before glancing over at the door to the bathroom. A room that he immediately noticed was empty.

Nora walked to Lizzie's bedroom, and upon finding Lizzie alone and asleep in her bed, her eyebrows furrowed as George raised his.

"Derek's room." George stated, his shoulders relaxing as he gave Nora a sad smile.

Nora sighed smiling back at him, realizing that they should have thought of that immediately. Derek and Casey has just gone through something terrible and seeking the comfort of the only other person who understood would make the most sense.

Gently pushing open the door, George followed Nora into Derek's dimly lit bedroom.

Not removing her eyes from Derek's bed, Nora whispered her husband's name calmly.

He shot her a quizzical look before following her gaze to Derek and Casey asleep. Casey's back was to Derek's chest, his arm wrapped snuggly around her middle. Their hands were gripping each other loosely, their fingers intertwined.

"Hmm… Well. That settles it," George whispered looking down at them. "It took them less than three years before they started dating."

"You owe me twenty bucks," Nora stated, her voice emotionless, her eyes not looking away from the sleeping teenagers.

George didn't avert his eyes as he reached into his pocket, pulled out a bill and slapped it into Nora's extended hand.

"Five years, what was I thinking?" He mumbled as he took one last look at the two asleep on Derek's bed. "Should we make her go to her room?"

"No. They've been through a lot. We'll just let them be for now."

Nora kissed them each on the forehead before following George out of the room.

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**Review please. Tell me what you loved and what you liked and especially what you hated. Honestly. If you think I ruined the story with my nice little coma twist tell me. I'm not gonna change it if you do hate it but I just want to know.**


	17. Awkward

30/12/2007 23:38:00

**I honestly intended on getting this posted sooner but to be honest, I kinda forgot about it. I'm getting a little bored with this story. In spite of that this chapter has one of my favorite Dasey interactions in it. Weird, eh?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own LWD. **

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"Well I think it's safe to say that that was the most awkward conversation of my life," Casey said flopping down next to Derek on the couch.

He turned to face her placing his left arm over her right one on the back of the couch. "Yeah I don't plan on repeating that father/son 'bonding' moment either," He replied using air quotes.

Casey scoffed. "Hey I'm just glad that they found out the way they did rather then us having to either A) Hide our relationship or B) Tell them ourselves."

"Good point. Rather than finding us sleeping together…you know in the literal sense, not in the 'Let's get naked!' fun way—" Casey smacked his chest. "Hey!" Derek said feigning shock before continuing. "They could have found us making out."

"True. That would have been _way_ more embarrassing then the talk I just had with my mother about not sneaking into my boyfriend's room in the middle of the night for 'playtime'." Derek's face scrunched in disgust to match Casey's. "But I still think us having to actually come out and say it to them would have been the worst."

"Won't fight with you there. Could you see how _that _conversation would have gone. Hey Dad guess what?! I don't care about you grounding me from dating when you get mad, cause my girlfriend just so happens to be your wife's daughter!"

"WHAT?!" Lizzie and Edwin both shouted.

Casey and Derek's heads both whipped around to see their younger siblings standing on the stair landing, Lizzie's jaw dropped in shock and Edwin was wide eyed. Derek looked back at Casey before he groaned and let his head fall in defeat onto their still linked arms on the back of the couch.

"Uh…Surprise?" Casey suggested tentatively, shrugging at the frozen Edwin and Lizzie.

Edwin shook his head. "I can't believe it. This just can't be happening."

Derek looked up at his younger brother with uncharacteristic compassion. "Look Ed, I know it might be weird for you, but —"

"I won!" Lizzie shouted triumphantly, finally moving. She smiled widely, dancing around Edwin, taunting him. "I won! I won! I won!" She said sing-song like, before jumping to a stop in front of him and holding her hand out, putting her other one on her hip. "Fork it over!"

"Huh?" Casey said as she and Derek looked at them with mutual confusion.

Edwin looked at the couple on the couch angrily as he pulled money out of his pocket and slapped it into Lizzie's hand. "You two couldn't have contained yourselves for 6 more months?!" He shouted looking at his brother with contempt.

Realization hit Derek at Edwin's statement and he shouted back at him in annoyance, "Did you bet on when we would start dating?!"

"Actually, the original bet was that you would get her to make out with you within 6 months of Dad and Nora's marriage. I lost that one. Then it escalated to you guys dating within 2 and a half years of living together. Well Lizzie thought within 2 and a half years. I said no sooner than 3 years."

"And I won!" Lizzie said beginning to sing again. "You lost! I won! You los—"

"Lizzie!" Casey said in disbelief. "You care more about winning a bet then you do about me finally finding happiness?!"

"No! No, not at all. I'm really glad that you're happy!" Lizzie paused before a smirk lit up her face again, "But I'm even happier that I won and Edwin _lost_!"

He growled, narrowing his eyes at her. She squealed, laughing as she turned to run back up the stairs.

"You better run!" He said chasing after her.

Derek laughed turning to Casey, who despite her disapproval of the bet, was smiling too.

"Wanna make a bet on how long it takes _those_ two to get together?" Derek said gesturing with his thumb at the stairs.

Casey's smile vanished as she scoffed and pulled her arm away from his to cross it with her other one over her chest. She leaned back and rested her back on the arm of the couch, shaking her head.

"You're unbelievable. They made a mockery of our love and all you can think to say is '_Wanna make a bet?_'"

Derek raised his eyebrows at her. "Mockery of our love? People only say crap like that in fairy tales and chick flicks, princess."

Casey's eyes narrowed. "You just don't understand what real romance is because you have the emotional maturity of a grape. And don't call me a princess you skirt casing cad!"

"UH! I protest that statement!" Derek shouted clutching his chest. "I'm at least as emotionally mature as a grape _FRUIT_. And if cad means a devilishly handsome man and you're the one wearing a skirt, yes I am!"

"Okay you can't do that!"

"Do what?!"

"Say adorable—_stuff_, like that when we're fighting!" Casey spit out, throwing her hands up in defeat. "It makes me want to kiss you!"

"Yeah? Well, you're nose gets all crinkled and you get all huffy and cute when you're mad at me, so it's only fair for me to make you want to kiss me as bad as I want to kiss you!"

Casey's lips pursed and her eyes narrowed as she attempted to stay mad. She gave up, shouting at him, "Then why are we still yelling?"

"I don't know!" Derek roared before he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pushed his lips onto hers. She pressed her body into his (the best she could while sitting) and opened her mouth slightly to run her tongue along his lips. His tongue reached out to pull hers into his warm and eager mouth. She ran her tongue across his, massaging it before she licked the roof of his mouth, causing him to moan in the back of his throat.

After a few minutes of them experiencing a kiss rarely shared in real life, they separated. Derek kissed her nose before pulling away completely. He looked at Casey with a satisfied smirk as she reached out intertwining her left hand with his right and resting them on her knee.

"Now I personally think that's a much better way of ending a fight then the way we used to," Derek said rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand.

Casey bit her lip happily as her free hand wrapped itself in his hair, twirling a small lock between her fingers. They sat together in comfortable silence for a few moments, touching and stroking each other lovingly.

"Derek?"

"Yeah?" he said studying her face as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

She looked him in the eye and said in the sweetest voice she could muster, "Did you cover my locker with Vaseline?"

He smirked at her, his eyes twinkling before he burst out laughing.

"DER-REK! YOU. JERK." she shouted, punching him on the arm after each syllable.

Derek jumped off the couch and ran up the stairs, Casey hot on his trail.

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**I know I know. The Lizwin betting on Dasey isn't what you would call original but I couldn't resist. All that's left now is the epilogue. Which isn't really epiloguey but oh well. Review.**


	18. What?

04/01/2008 21:46:00

**Well this is it! The last chapter. Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers. I got almost 300 for this story! Made me very happy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek.**

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"You do it."

"No you do it."

"Why do I have to do it?!" Casey squeaked causing Derek to cringe.

"Okay only dogs heard what you just said. And I told Edwin and Lizzie! It's your turn."

Casey scoffed and crossed her arms. "You did not tell them! They just overhead you talking about it."

"Psh. Same thing." Derek stated casually with a wave of his hand.

"Derek it is not the same thing. And I really don't feel like being the one to tell Sam and Emily."

Derek huffed as he plopped down on the bench outside of Smelly Nelly's. "This is ridiculous! We already know they'll be fine with us being together."

"No we don't. How do we know that the way they reacted the first time is really how they reacted? It could have just been our minds telling us what we already subconsciously knew through our best friends therefore having them act the way we would hope for them to really react?"

"…"

Casey stared expectantly down at Derek's expressionless face. After a moment of silence passed, she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, sitting down next to him. "My head hurts."

Derek suddenly grabbed Casey's shoulders, surprising her by pulling her into a kiss. She put her hand to his chest, shocked by his lack of discretion in such a public place. She intended to push him away but after a moment, her hands moved to his collar to pull him closer.

"Casey?!" "Derek?!"

Casey's lips froze as she felt Derek's curl into a smirk. She pulled an inch away from him and looked into his devious eyes.

"Derek please tell me that you did not just kiss me as a way of getting out of actually telling them."

He shrugged, his smirk turning into a boyish smile. "It worked."

She narrowed her eyes playfully at him before sighing and turning to Sam and Emily. She smiled, pulling Derek off the bench with her and walking to them.

"So do you guys always make out in front of Smelly Nelly's or was that just a spur of the moment thing?" Sam asked casually.

"Does this mean you and DJ Elbows are finally together?!" Emily shrieked.

Casey laughed despite herself as she remembered the ridiculous codename she came up with. She figured there was no point in denying Derek as her boyfriend, due to the intense lip lock Sam and Emily had just seen them involved in. "Yes we are."

Emily jumped and pulled Casey into a hug as Sam smiled reaching out to give Derek a pat on the shoulder. "Ah ha ha. Congrats man! Although I must say I'm gonna miss you sucking at Babe Raider."

"Funny!" Derek stated sarcastically, wrapping his arm over Casey's shoulders. "Now can we go in? I'm starving."

Sam and Emily laughed and started to move when Casey stopped them, confusion lacing her voice. "Wait. How did you know about me using DJ Elbows as a code name for Derek."

"And when did I ever suck at Babe Raider?"

Emily and Sam's smiles faded as they turned to stare at each other, obvious panic welling up between them.

"Well?" Casey urged when they remained silent.

They suddenly burst into laughter, causing Derek and Casey to exchange a baffled look.

"Guys what's going on?" Derek asked.

Sam and Emily exchanged a knowing look. They smiled at them, a mysterious twinkle in both of their eyes before turning and sauntering into the restaurant.

"Uh guys?!" Casey called after them before she and Derek quickly followed after them.

**THE END!**

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**Yep that's where I'm leaving you. No sequel. I'll let you guys come up with your own explanation. Thanks again for your support! **


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